IT's going to be fun.

Lee Beagley, director of the Octagon Theatre's Festive production The Owl and the Pussycat Went to See, is determined about that.

"There is no real story," he said. "It is just a lot of fun. The sort of fun that children have."

Lee was a founder member of Liverpool-based Kaboodle Productions in 1978.

Although an award-winning actor, he now prefers directing.

In 1997 he directed Twelfth Night, a co-production with the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. This play was invited to tour Malaysia as part of a British Council cultural visit.

In spring this year he directed Moby Dick, a Kaboodle co-production with Walk The Plank, Britain's only touring theatre ship.

He sees the Owl and the Pussycat appealing to everyone aged from four to 94.

The cast of six will be augmented by puppets and figurines. There's a life-sized turkey puppet, for instance, and a spectacular giant pig.

There will be lots of 60s style music and a villain in the shape of the Plum Pudding Flea.

Also mixed in will be clowning and fairytale to bring out the magic of Edward Lear's colourful characters.

Lee is comfortable directing a play for audiences which will include many children.

"I don't believe in patronising them," he said. "There will only be audience participation if the children want to take part. It will happen naturally.

"I think they might hiss the Plum Pudding Flea," he added.

Although Lee stressed that the show is not a pantomime, he thought it had ingredients of a "classic" pantomime.

He said there was "no darkness" in the show and no moral message.

Parents would be able to appreciate the show if they have a sense of humour, he said.

"It has nonsense and songs. You don't have to worry about a moral at Christmas."

Eugene Salleh, who plays the Quangle Wangle as a Mexican hotel owner, recently filmed The Sleeping Dictionary in Malaysia with Bob Hoskins and Brenda Blethyn.

"It was wonderful," he said. "I had a luxury caravan, a car to take me everywhere and an hotel room like an apartment."

The film is due to be released next year.

Eugene, who is from Liverpool, appeared in last year's festive production, Hansel and Gretel.

"I like working with children," he said."You know they are up for it and are going to have a good laugh. You can't afford to be precious with them."

Other members of the cast include Rob Pickavance, who has appeared in Neville's Island and Anna Karenina at the Octagon. He plays the Owl.

Terence Mann, who has appeared in Fat Friends for Granada Television, is Professor Bosh.

The adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat as they journey across the Syllabub Sea to Bong Tree Island starts on November 30 and runs until January 13. Controlled chaos is hard work BEN reporter ROGER WILLIAMS went behind the scenes to watch rehearsals for the Octagon's Christmas production. IF rehearsals are anything to go by, The Owl and the Pussycat Went to See is best summed up as controlled chaos.

Sitting in as the actors work through the final scene, as the evil Plum Pudding Flea tries to drag away the rest of the colourful cast in a comical tug-of-war, it appears pure mayhem.

Although, if the truth be known, it is anything but. Hours of work have already gone into a scene lasting barely five minutes and, by the time the show opens at the end of the month, every move and facial expression will have been painstakingly choreographed.

Director Lee Beagley chuckles to himself as he sees his ideas start to take shape.

He insists there is a science to the sort of slapstick employed in The Owl and the Pussycat, an artform often ousted from traditional pantomimes in favour of song.

"It should never be real for a minute," he tells his cast. "It should always be a cartoon."

He elaborates: "When you look at film slapstick such as the Keystone Cops and there's a scene where dozens of them are hanging off a car, if you look closely you can see that it's all carefully worked out. Everybody knows exactly what they are doing."

Watching the cast throw themselves -- almost literally in the case of the tug-of-war -- into their roles at close quarters, it seems exhausting stuff.

But physical theatre specialist Harry Smith, who plays the Plum Pudding Flea, says her first professional production is proving a real buzz: "I suppose it is physically exerting but that's what we train to do. Mainly it's just brilliant fun because we are all doing what we love.

"We are just spending all our time laughing in rehearsals because we are just coming up with new ideas all the time."

Right until the last minute, in fact, but Lee Beagley does not look like a man under pressure as he watches the team go through their surreal motions. Maybe that is because he has a secret weapon under wraps -- Terence Mann as an enormous turkey.

So confident is he the American-accented bird will steal the show, he asked the BEN not to spoil the surprise by photographing it.

Coming eye-to-eye with the fabulous fowl demanding: "What are you having for your Christmas dinner?", it was hard to decide whether it was hilarious or terrifying.