In Laura Numeroff's 1985 social treatise If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, she uses the analogy of a mouse to illustrate the dangers of welfare. If you give a mouse a cookie, she warns, he'll want milk. And once he has milk, he'll want a place to sleep. Soon free food and shelter won't be enough. Now he wants a story - free entertainment! - and before long, he's trashed the house you earned for yourself and your family with the sweat of your brow and the competence to succeed. Your misguided generosity will never be enough, and society will collapse into squalor. Mice live in holes, Numeroff explains, because they're inherently weak and unambitious. We humans live in houses because we deserve them, and should feel no obligation to reward poor decisions by lower-class life forms.

Or wait, maybe I'm reading too much into it.

Ayn Randian parables aside, Olympia Family Theater's stage production (adapted by Jody Davidson) is a mostly two-hander about a mouse who takes advantage of a boy's good nature.

To read Christian Carvajal's full review click here.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Through May 29, Thursday–Saturday 7 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m., $8.50–$15.50
Olympia Family Theater, 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia
360.753.8586