As their contribution to the Welsh Proms the young members of the Unknown Theatre company tackled Stephen Sondheim's enchanting melange of faitytales. It is a musical with an ingenious mix of light and darkness with plenty of challenges for director and cast.Musically it contains some of the composer's finest music with some memorable songs such as 'Children will listen' and 'No one is alone' .

In the case of this production the challenges were increased by the fact that it was performed in the cramped space of level one at St .David's Hall with a stage resembling a large postage stamp and the performers almost in the audience's laps. The low ceilng also provided a challenging acoustic that sometimes made it difficult to achieve good ensemble. Intimacy sometimes bordered on claustrophobia.

It is to the artists' credit that they made light of these circumstances and produced a sparkling show. The comic elements were to the fore with some terrific individual performances - David Gibbons and James Sidwell (who doubled as a particularly creepy wolf) were hilariously over -the -top as the two princes - their duet 'Agony' was a highlight.

Katie Murphy starred as a (very Welsh) Little Red Riding Hood and there were wonderfully assured performances from David Millard and Leanne Talbot as the Baker and his Wife who are cursed by the witch (excellently played by Carly Griffin). Michelle Kay as a strikingly good Cinderella and Craig Legg held the whole thing together admirably as the narrator.

The many musical difficulties involved in the complex score seemed to present few fears for this very talented company.