While there is nothing the slightest bit Christmassy about the Watermill Theatre’s seasonal show, it certainly provides the theatrical treat that children expect at this time of year.

The matinee performance I attended brought a large turnout of youngsters who were clearly captivated by Matilda and Duffy’s Stupendous Space Adventure.

This is a charming tale of derring-do involving two rather battered puppets who are brought to life and set off on an inter-galactic mission to recover a five-note formula that will restore music to a world suddenly deprived of it.

That this calamity should have occurred as a consequence of a collision with a meteorite might seem unlikely in the extreme. There again, so are animated puppets, though the audience, young and old, had no problem believing in failed magician Duffy (Ben Tolley) and self-styled star dancer Matilda (Emily Butterfield), who we eventually discover to be rather better at boasting about it than actually performing.

Steve Attridge’s witty script (heavy on alliteration in the style of Tin Tin’s Captain Haddock) introduces a pantomime element with the involvement of a hissable, shudder-worthy villain in the shape of the Rock Lizard King (Christopher Hawes). This reptilian possessor of “all the riffs” is prepared to help in the hunt for the fomula, but only in exchange for the residue of Duffy’s addled brain.

Disconcertingly, this has a habit of emerging cotton-wool-like from the crown of his magician’s hat.

The show accords to a pattern that has now become a Watermill tradition where musical entertainment is concerned. This means actors doubling up as instrumentalists – sometimes in the thick of the action, sometimes hidden from view at the rear.

Composer Olly Fox provides a good collection of highly listenable songs. Together with the eye-grabbing effects achieved by director Joanna Read and designer Liz Cooke this makes for two hours of fun which manages to get important messages across about ecology and the like without ever becoming preachy.

Beside the characters already mentioned, there are chuckle-worthy performance from William Oxborrow as a pompous army type and Angela Bain as the tough-nut Space Punk.

But it seemed to me that one star was among my matinee crowd. As duff conjurer Duffy finally pulled off a trick, there came a shout of “Voila!” from a young voice behind me.

They begin sophistication early in Newbury.

Matilda and Duffy’s Stupendous Space Adventure is at the Watermill till January 3.

For tickets telephone 01635 46044 (www.watermill.org.uk).