At the time, unaware it is a benefit performance for the Lismore Flood victims, I take up an allocation of two free seats (otherwise priced at $49) but later contribute $100 to the Australian Red Cross flood appeal.

As I am not exactly a Harry Potter fan, I take along my 14-year-old daughter Mila, who has read every book and seen every film and spin-off several times.

I also pay for a program ($12) so that I can get the details of the cast and crew for this review.

In it I read this from Very Popular's artistic director Daniel Stoddart: "I could come up with seven completely unbiassed reasons why you are going to love this play, but because we're already got your money and you are sitting in your seats, I don't need to."

Oh really?

We all know live entertainment has had an awful two years, due to the pandemic, but doesn't that sound a tad cynical, if only in a jokey way?

He goes onto to write this: "I could say that if you are a fan of laughter and maybe went to school at some point then you are going to love this show..."

Stoddart is largely right about his audience loving the show. On the afternoon I see Puffs, about two-thirds of the audience are enchanted by it, wearing wide-mouthed grins, frequently squealing with delight and nudging each other at the frequent Harry Potter references.

With all the gloom in the world at present, it would be churlish to begrudge the cast and the majority of the audience its fun. Nor is there is any doubting the commitment to that in all elements of this production, with much hilarity to be had in magic spells gone wrong and well timed visual gags.

It all looks excellent too, with a multi-functional set, and characters strongly delineated by colourful (quickly adaptable) costumes and physical quirks. Technically this show is a triumph, remaining visually engaging and bolting along at pace.

The energy and conviction among the cast is admirable too. As the three central Puffs, perennial underdogs in the Magic Cup, and essentially our heroes, triumphing over adversity and making friends along the way, there are strong performances, particularly from Bree Young as the grungy Megan Jones.

However, for me, that's about as far as the positives go. For much of the show, I feel like I am watching a children's birthday party featuring hyperactive five-year olds on a sugar high.

It's endearing for five minutes, torture for nearly ninety.

Much of the fault for that lies with the script, full of puerile humour - that reminds of the kids television show Giggle and Hoot - and cartoon-like characterisations.

Like the program notes, the premise for Puffs seems cynical: let's latch onto one of the most successful cultural franchises in history and make up a barely concealed copycat plot of young outsiders going to wizard school, and make loads of money. Which Puffs has apparently achieved, alongside scarcely credible critical success, on Broadway.

In truth, Stoddart and his cast don't have very far to go with these characters, almost to a man/woman, one-dimensional cut-outs of a perceived notion of posh British private school educated twits. Or simply differentiated by a silly accent (Scottish, French) or physical issue like extreme short-sightedness, that are deemed to be inherently funny.

Am I alone in growing tired of these lazy stereotypes? I get it, the British (and other former colonists like the French, are fair game, but this is 2022, not 1975, and the range of characters assembled on the stage wouldn't represent 5% of the present UK population. For an increasingly multicultural city, there is virtually no other diversity on stage, in terms of character or cast, either.

I really don't want to be unkind because the skinny characterisation doesn't give actors a lot of room for manoeuvre but many of the performances are way over the top. Even within the narrow confines of the script, less would have been more, and the director Stoddart should really have reined in Nick Allen-Ducat as Cedric Diggory (and the Dark Lord), Megan Kennedy as Sally Perks, Anna Lambert as Leanne and James Chapman as Ernie Mac.

I check my daughter's face frequently to see if I'm having a sense of humour failure or if I've lost the plot due to my limited knowledge of Harry Potter. She just looks bemused.

I don't wish to discount the obvious enjoyment of the majority of the audience attending Puffs, nor do I believe that this review will make any difference to the success of the show. After all, as its central character, Wayne, says: "we're all important and we're all unimportant".

However, the director Stoddart recently publicly called for more honest critical input, to help improve theatrical standards here.

So that is what I have tried to give here, and overall, to me, Puffs is a pantomime that is seven months too early and at least two decades behind the times.