DOMINIC Allen, or Dominic J Allen as he was billed at the time, cut his theatrical teeth in York, progressing from the university ranks to Belt Up Theatre, The Flanagan Collective and York Theatre Royal's Forty Years On and Peter Pan.

He subsequently trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, but he was back in York last October for an all-too-brief run of Fable, Alexander Wright's profound, moving play in pursuit of happiness in modern times, at The Gillygate Shed.

Tomorrow and Thursday, he returns once more, in a very different guise, in Les Petits Theatre Company's world premiere tour of The First Hippo On The Moon, the David Walliams story for children aged three and upwards adapted for the stage by artistic director Oliver Lansley.

"It's a very colourful show, aimed at younger children, but it suits all primary school-age children and grown-ups too," says Dominic. "It isn't really a storytelling piece of theatre because it's a picture book that's been re-created on stage, so Oliver frames it as a visual piece first, rather than as a story."

York Press:

Actor Dominic Allen: returning to York

Based on Walliams’s children’s book with illustrations by Tony Ross, The First Hippo On The Moon is an "explosively humorous space adventure" wherein the enormously rich Hercules Waldorf-Franklin III and ingenious Sheila compete to be the first hippo to make it to the moon.

Lansley's hour-long adaptation makes great play of puppets created by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell, who collaborated previously on War Horse and Dr Seuss’s The Lorax. "Nick has been very keen on making the puppets as close to Tony Ross's illustrations as possible," says Dominic, who voices the show's "baddie hippo", Hercules Waldorf-Franklin III, and also plays a Porcupine called Scratch.

After performing in Lorca Is Dead, Sherlock Holmes: A Working Hypothesis and Arthur Miller's The Crucible, could Dominic have envisaged appearing in such a show as The First Hippo? "I've done pantomime at the Bristol Old Vic [Sleeping Beauty] and I did an outdoor touring show, The Fantastical Flying Exploratory Laboratory, for Oliver's sister company, Les Enfants Terribles, last summer, which was aimed at children too," he says.

"Though I never anticipated being in this show, I can see where lots of things can apply from other things I've done: the immersive side of those shows; the interaction; bringing out the inner child in me – and children often make the best audiences."

York Press:

Playwright David Walliams

David Walliams attended a performance in Eastbourne and was so impressed that he "gave a little speech at the end where he said the show was better than the book". "That was high praise indeed," says Dominic. "My impression is that he's been very supportive all the way and he had a few suggestions for a few tweaks here and there."

Dominic has a contract for The First Hippo until the late summer, "so we'll be doing the show in all seasons, in all weathers, in theatres of all sizes, the length and breadth of Britain". "We were even in Hong Kong in January as part of Kids Fest, where lots of international companies each did shows for three or four days and they were packed out," he says. "The children were sometimes even more responsive than they are here. They certainly pipe up and really want to be involved."

Now settled into the production run, Dominic can assess what makes The First Hippo appeal to children. "The characters are large, both physically and in terms of personality, and the story doesn't candy-coat anything they get up to," he says. "Even the main character makes decisions that can be seen as dubious, though obviously everyone gets their comeuppance at the end, but it's not done too heavily and the characters get to behave in quite a brash way, which the children just love."

The First Hippo On The Moon will run at Grand Opera House, York, on February 8 and 9, and West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, April 5 to 8. Box office: York, 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york; Leeds, 0113 213 7700 or wyp.org.uk. Suitable for children aged three and upwards.

Did you know?

Les Petits Theatre Company's premiere of The First Hippo On The Moon just had to be staged at a Hippodrome theatre, didn't it. The Royal Hippodrome Theatre at Eastbourne, to be precise.