Theatre of the Absurd meets Everychild in Lee White’s darkly enthralling song, dance, drama and monster puppet show for the six-plus age group and their accompanying adults.

If the latter laugh rather more than the youngsters, it is because the show appeals to children’s delight in oddities – and nasties – at a safe distance. Ghost-like pillows dance wildly, a zany singer in frilly purple spouts nonsense, Punch and Judy-style puppets snarl from a walking mini-theatre, and a red-garbed mother chases everyone with her red-smeared chopper.

Such are the stuff of little Susie’s scary – but not too scary – nightmares as the creatures lurking under her bed come out at night. Caruso, the friendly Pillow Man, mimes guidance for Susie’s bedtime odyssey as she encounters ever more bizarre characters, with a menacing narrator given to grim ditties signposting the way. Yet when she bravely climbs into the Sock Monster – a contraption hung with dozens of coloured socks – Susie is finally on her way home.

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Sticky Back Theatre creates a beguilingly bizarre atmosphere throughout, engrossing the audience with highly imaginative puppetry and robust physical staging:. Narrator Lee White, Maria Guiver as Susie and Daniel King as Caruso especially appeal.

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Review by Brian G Cooper - THE STAGE