MTYP's Dib and Dob a charmingly sensible nonsensical exploration of sibling love

If you have brothers or sisters, you'll know that it often seems there's a shared language that's unique to siblings.

That's quite literally the case in Dib and Dob and the Journey Home, the slightly surreal and irrepressibly charming show opening this weekend at Manitoba Theatre for Young People, with a tour of Manitoba schools to follow.

David S. Craig (the Canadian playwright behind the hit Danny, King of the Basement) and Robert Morgan's simple story follows brothers Dib (Gordon Tanner) and Dob (Aaron Pridham), who are lost in the woods and trying to find an elusive place called "home."

With a mix of vaudevillian slapstick, clowning and clever puppetry (courtesy of designer Karyn McCallum and puppeteer Alissa Watson), Dib and Dob explores through our two protagonists the sibling bond, what family means and how we treat our closest relations, and how we find "home."

Craig and Morgan do this by more or less stripping away language. Dib and Dob speak in a gibberish-ish pidgin English, with just enough actual words to help us get the gist, thanks in large part to broadly expressive performances from Tanner and Pridham.

When the older and overbearing Dib tells Dob, for example, "Oo mak me so fash!" it's plainly apparent that he's telling his younger sibling "You make me so mad!' — and that this is an oft-repeated conversation between the two.

Dob, the lower-status younger sibling in this mismatched yet perfectly believable pair, is played with goofy guileless charm by Pridham, who also earned big laughs at Wednesday morning's dress rehearsal with some well-timed pratfalls and other physical comedy.

Tanner is a master of blustery rage as Dib, and manages to find the silly humour in his bossiness and constantly simmering anger. Together, they've got great comic chemistry.

Director Pablo Felices-Luna's production is sharply timed and mines not just the ample laughs in the script, but also finds its big heart as the brothers redefine their relationship and what "home" really is.

McCallum's set design, centred around a thick-trunked tree with menacingly spider-like limbs, and her puppets give the production a playful and sometimes surprising visual appeal.

With language barriers out of the way, there's lots here for young kids (the 50-minute production is targeted to ages six and up, but I think kids even a bit younger would enjoy it) to laugh along with.

But particularly those who have siblings — regardless of age — will find plenty to relate to here.

Dib and Dob and the Journey Home runs at Manitoba Theatre for Young People until Feb. 5, after which it will tour Manitoba schools until May 5.