It is hard to pinpoint the exact moment when I fell hopelessly in love with Told By an Idiot's new version of Philip Pullman's novella about Lila, the daughter of a firework maker, who is determined to follow her father's trade while he is equally determined to marry her off.
It might have been at the moment in the market square when the wind blew everyone hither and thither; it could have been when Lila's hat became a distant mountain peak dusted with petals of snow, or maybe it was when Lila is glimpsed climbing the vertical drop of the mountain. By then, like Lila, I was head over heels.
There are so many theatrical magic moments in this show it is hard to choose, and that's without even taking into account a sizzling, red-hot performance of burning intensity from the actor who plays a lighted fuse, or the final firework contest - which Lila must win if she is to save her father's life - and which is one big explosive blast of fun. And I haven't even mentioned the talking, lovesick, white elephant called Hamlet who suddenly appears solidly on stage, made out of a couple of sheets.
Told By an Idiot's production premiered in Sheffield earlier this year, where it disappointed. It was too diffuse, too slow and self-indulgent, the final contest lacked real explosive tension. Now what it loses in no longer having Hayley Carmichael in the title role, it makes up for in a tight little show that lasts just two hours with an interval and which really gets down to telling the story of Lila's quest. It combines the fairy-tale quality of Pullman's book with a pantomime humour and a sense that something important is at stake - maturity, happiness, independence and parents recognising when it is time to let their children go. It is vulgar and wistful, delicate yet robust, and it goes with a bang.
· Until January 22. Box office: 08700 500511.
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