If you give a mouse a cookie, it will leave a trail of  crumbs, hair and half of the kitchen on the floor.
 That’s the premise of New West Theatre latest theatre for young audiences production of  “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie , based on the popular Laura Numeroff penned children”s book.

 The show runs in the Sterndale Bennett Theatre until Jan. 7.

The two man production starring Willie Banfield as a manic young mouse and Kelsey Flower as the boy, trying to keep the mouse under control, starts innocuously enough with the innocent mouse asking the boy for a cookie, which quickly accelerates into complete chaos.

In the process of getting the mouse a glass of milk, helping him cut his hair and attempting to clean up the kitchen, the two bond, the boy learns about the mouse’s parents and life and starts to identify with him, but things spiral out of control in a  blur of  cartwheels, leaps and pratfalls.

 The two actors play off each other well.
 It is almost as much fun listening to the young hecklers in the crowd who could tell things weren’t going to end well for some of the characters’ decisions and shouted out warnings and  observations at the duo.

The set is a beautifully rendered kitchen suite featuring an oversized fridge, stove, kitchen sink, cabinet as well as oversized novelty props including a giant broom, glove, and face-powder box, with which the boy tries to make a bed for the hyperactive mouse  to calm him down.

 The size difference between the two is conveyed well as the boy will take a regular sized item like a pen or handkerchief and hand it to the mouse, who will pick up a giant sized replica of the same pen from behind the set.

The only time this gag misses is with a pack of crayons, as the boy hands the mouse  a giant sized crayon, which the mouse uses to create an actually pretty good picture of his family and home — especially for a mouse.

New West Theatre for Young Audiences veteran Banfield shows his prowess at physical acting throughout the show as Flower plays straight man or boy to this crazed mouse.

Banfield gets a workout, leaping all over the stage with boundless energy and enthusiasm. He does everything but swing from the ceiling, wait a second, he does that too when he tries to put his picture on the giant fridge.

 He does a mirror dance with his doppleganger in a fake mirror rolled onto the stage as another actor mimics everything he does. Banfield also acts out a comic book the boy reads him in an effort to get him to calm down.

 Meanwhile the boy, Flower, conveys a lot of emotion in just his face and body language as he sees the destruction wrought by the mouse as he tries to get the kitchen back to normal before his mother gets home.

 If you have young children, “If You Give The Mouse a Cookie,” is a must see — a  nice deviation from the norm in the new year. Who thought complete chaos could be so much fun?

 “If You Give the Mouse a Cookie” runs  until Jan. 7 in the Sterndale Bennett Theatre at  3:30 p.m., Jan. 2-7 plus  early 1 p.m. matinees Jan. 5 and Jan. 7.