GO down the stairs and follow the leaf-lined road to the wooded wonderland of the Barber Studio, normally a rehearsal room but here transformed into a playhouse for Pinocchio.

Wood is everywhere in Emma Williams's design: at the centre is a tree with climbing pegs, in its bald winter state, and all around are tree stumps that triple up as seats, storage space for props and blocks for percussive music.

The cast of three - York actor Richard Kay and Sara Rice-Oxley in multiple roles and Simon Kerrigan as puppet boy Pinocchio - accompany musician Andy Spearpoint in playing myriad wood-based instruments, from sticks to a cello. In particular, the initial burst of drumming is a joy, and Richard Taylor's compositions continue to delight, climaxing with audience participation in Happy Here In Toyland.

Adapted by Mike Kenny and Phil Clark from Carlo Collodi's rites-of-passage story, Gal McIntyre's production is a charmingly inventive piece of story-telling theatre for four to eight-year- olds, full of magic and music with room for mystery, mime and juggling too.

Kerrigan is a cheeky, wide eyed and northern-voiced Pinocchio, with physical agility that is gymnastic yet always that of a puppet. Kay and Rice-Oxley relish their diverse roles, broad and warmly comical and scary when required.

The free-flowing progress is typified by Kerrigan acquiring a puppet to represent Pinocchio when he is drowning and ends up in a shark. More magic in a tree-mendous children's show.

Box office: 0113 213 7700

Updated: 11:32 Friday, January 07, 2005