Peter Pan is the archetypal story for those adults who have forgotten what it means to be young.

It’s a story that is constantly being reused but what makes The Old Market’s production, The Boy Who Never Grew Up, so memorable is not the story itself but the way that the performers use the tale as a springboard to demonstrate the power of play.

The production hinges on ways in which children can use the power of imagination to create new worlds.

Eschewing elaborate props and staging, Amelia Bird and Philippa Herrick use an ever-changing array of ordinary to entrance their young audience: cotton-wool clouds, jungles and soft cannonballs appear and are incorporated into the story.

The live action is mixed up with wooden puppets and shadow play to complete the picture - it doesn’t sound like much, but there was a real sense of wonder among the young children at the play, there was a real sense of audience involvement.

“There were only two of them” said my son after the performance. Indeed there were, but what a magical world the pair of them created – a timely reminder of how theatre can sometimes bring out the kid in all of us.