To be big and small on the stage is easy, to do both in the same world never losing track of the other, and bringing the emotion through is extremely hard, and The Ocean At The End of The Lane makes it feel the most natural thing in the world. And always returns to the most intimate scenes, which take up far more of the play. It's just one example of the remarkable stagecraft of this play that brings in trapdoors, giant puppetry, wirework, strobe effects, and a soundscape that screams and jars as much as Tenet, but at no point loses track of the very small and human story playing out at its heart. Nia Towle and James Bamford in The Ocean At The End Of The Lane, photo by Manuel Harlan The magic on stage is only matched by that of the story.

She was always what she was at the end we just couldn't see it – and that revelation is itself portrayed in dance. While Nia Towle as Lettie Hempstock doesn't so much go on a journey as takes us on a journey understanding who she is. Penny Layden as Old Mrs Hempstock dominates with caustic wit, given the juiciest of lines, but thoroughly inhabits a sense of resigned duty and the 'snippage' scene remains a highlight. Penny Layden and Siubhan Harrison, photo by Manuel HarlanĪnd in typical Neil Gaiman style, we have a Hecate who are as conversant with electrons and medical biology as they are the sun, the moon, and the stars. The two worlds of reality, the everpresent glowing door as a stage device, from states of being, going through the door takes you places, transforms you, gives you a view into other ways to be or to be aware of those who are watching you. It's with this characterisation that the play forms itself. It is an incredibly believable performance that belies how much effort it takes to show someone already in two worlds, stepping from one to the other, trying one on for size. He is gangly, ideas come out faster than his mouth can frame them, and you see his discomfort with a world outside of his books, with every twitch, every flung arm, every misstep. And so much of that is from the lead actor James Bamford, who plays the unnamed Boy, a just-turned-twelve-year-old boy, not yet a teenager, with a head full of young thoughts on a shoulder that is starting to bear the adult world upon it.

For a play that adapts the work of a famously verbose writer, it does an excellent job of showing, not telling. As a play, it is savage with the original text where it needs to be it cuts deeps and gets straight to the action.

The ocean at the end of the lane book