Teenage boys can be such blockheads. None more so than Pinocchio, of course, the original runaway ingrate whose rebellion against parental control leads him very far from the safety of home. Then again, Gepetto's parenting credentials are not quite established here: ordered by phone from a dubious tv sales outlet, we watch as two white-coated manufacturers drill, saw, hammer Pinocchio into being. It's good fun and really well done, but the father/creator and son relationship is not really carved out before Pinocchio makes his escape.

But this is a small quibble in what is otherwise a cracking version of the little wooden boy who would by Galway's Moonfish Theatre, who have gone back to the decidedly darker original of Carlo Collodi to follow Pinocchio on the nightmare journey of the title. With live foley sound effects provided to great effect by director Máiréad Ní Chróinín, company members Zita Monaghan, Ionia Ní Chróinín and Morgan Cooke work well together using song, dance, shadow-puppetry, lights and illusion to bring Pinocchio (Grace Kiely) on his dark and perilous journey through malevolent forests, braying islands, sinister puppet theatres and over thrashing seas.

Shifting between Irish and English (and the occasional Italian song), Tromluí Phinocchio / Pinocchio – a Nightmare is a great introduction to how vast worlds can be created in a black space out of very little at all.

Star rating: ★★★★