One of the funniest running jokes in Little Britain features David Walliams as a diminutive Dennis Waterman seeking work from his agent. He's so small that everyday objects, such as chairs, doughnuts and telephones, constantly threaten to smother him. It's a surreal touch that adds an edge of wonderment to the sketches.
Some of that sense of wonder is present in Mary Norton's The Borrowers, the 1952 children's novel about tiny people who live beneath the floorboards. Norton takes an imaginative leap into a world where discarded thimbles, kettles and hatpins are of life-saving importance to creatures six inches high.
Lynn Robertson Hay's adaptation of the book was first produced by Snap Theatre Company 10 years ago. Now artistic director Jeremy Raison has expanded it with a cast of 13 and an elaborate sequence of stages-within-stages that play with our sense of perspective.
Kenny Miller's period design incorporates outsize matchboxes, birthday-candle torches and a boat-sized sardine can. We get further topsy-turvy shifts when a massive dog's head is projected on to the back wall and a doll-size puppet shuffles across the stage to meet the "human beans".
It's a tad clunky at times but imaginatively done. The weakness is the production's uncertainty of tone. This is the epic story of the teenage Arrietty and her escape from danger to the mythical Borrower village of Little Fordham. Suzanne Donaldson plays the part seriously enough, however Cara Kelly as her mother is like a music-hall dame, but not as funny, and an odd mismatch with Greg Powrie's father, who shows little paternal warmth.
Meanwhile, Stephen Aintree is cross-dressing as the human Mrs Driver and - in confusingly similar clothes - Great Aunt Sophy, bringing a pantomime flourish that trivialises Arrietty's struggle.
The scrapes of the second half have a disconnected, episodic feel, as if the family's escape is by luck more than skill. It's hard to feel their efforts justify the final exuberant round of Jingle Bells.
· Until December 31. Box office: 0141-429 0022.
