KIDFEST: Eth-Noh-Tec -- Series of Performances for Bermuda Schools *** Many primary and pre-school children -- around 5,000 of them, in fact -- have had their first taste of live theatre over the past couple of weeks through an innovative programme spearheaded by Paula Maguire.

Well known for her outstanding presentations of children's theatre through her annual Kidfest, Mrs. Maguire has this year changed the format by bringing the project directly into Bermuda's schools.

Judging by the rapturous reception that greeted Eth-Noh-Tec's appearance at Purvis Primary School (with children also from Montessori and Warwick Pre-Schools), the venture has been a huge success.

Asian-Americans Nancy Wang and Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo, who are based in San Francisco, and travel throughout the US, have received Emmys and the Parents' Choice Gold for their duo act -- and little wonder. The seamless weaving of eastern and western cultures through storytelling, music, movement and mime is nothing short of magical.

It should be said that the young audience was very efficiently `warmed up' before the performance actually began by none other than Mrs. Maguire's three-year old son Daniel, who took it upon himself to entertain the waiting children by peeping out of the curtains, launching into a series of mimed antics that had the kids in stitches: he has obviously inherited his dancer/singer mother's theatrical genes.

Clad in bright scarlet and blue, and bearing Chinese bamboo flutes and a small Japanese drum, the couple presented an enchanting programme of folk-lore tales, illustrating that stories beginning with "once upon a time'' are universal: "Open your mind and let the world shine in'', they exhorted the young audience and made no qualms about the dangers of televison on young minds: "We want you to make sure you are awake because this is not TV!'' Delving back into a Korean story, they also illustrated the fact that gruesome fairy tales are not the preserve of the brothers Grimm: this tale, in which people were eating each other in the mistaken belief that they were cows, is thousands of years old. The moral of the tale, embroidered with comically face-contorting mime, and eternal in its message, is that people should learn to see people as people. The admonition that eating onions was preferable to eating people was used to illustrate the meaning of metaphor -- and if this sounds a trifle advanced for such young audiences, it is a measure of the couple's talent that the children were enthralled. Explaining that the expression "raining cats and dogs'' did not mean that animals were falling out of the sky, they demonstrated that people didn't really "eat'' people but that those acting unkindly toward others should be told "Oh, go and eat your onions''.

Another story came from Cambodia, and entitled Trouble Talk, used (with much comically emphatic mime) the creatures of the forest to illustrate man's man's mistreatment of animals and the environment. Referring to humans as "puny little two-legs'', the creatures watched anxiously as this fearful being rubbed two stones together, creating fire which caused their rain forest, their world, to burn down. Tigers, thrashing against bamboos, were "striped'' by the fires, the elephant's fur burned, and man was alienated from the animal world.

The rhythmic dialogue, expressive dance movement and non-stop humour in all of the stories underlines man's moral frailty. Rarely have cultural bridges been so enchantingly crossed as by this pair.

Besides introducing children to the immediacy of theatre, Paula Maguire has provided a compelling vehicle that should vividly assist Bermuda, first to recognise differences, to embrace them -- and finally recognise that all cultures share a common humanity.

Kids' favourite: Asian-Americans Nancy Wang and Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo, who are based in San Francisco, and travel throughout the US, have received Emmys and the Parents' Choice Gold for their duo act.