There’s some very clever wordplay in Dennis Kelly’s book, Our Teacher is a Troll (as you might expect from the writer of Matilda the Musical) – so it takes some equally clever staging to flip it from page to stage.

Happily, this co-production from Paines Plough and Half Moon theatre companies has that in spades. The direction never takes the easy way out – if there’s something to be said, a new and interesting way has been unearthed to deliver it. And the performers respond accordingly.

Three actors, two male one female, take on a myriad of roles – with many characters being played by all three of them. Performed in the round, with astute use of a single microphone, the show takes us halfway there – then it’s up to our imaginations to fill in the rest.

When the children look up to the sky, at the enormous troll that has come to wreak havoc in their school, it’s almost as if we can see it, slavering over the deputy head. And as each avenue of help is closed to them, from teachers to the Prime Minister, we’re right behind them when it’s left to children to win the day.