BONG! A bell talks. Bong! Another bell talks, high in the bell tower of the cathedral of Notre Dame.

Welcome to the wonderful world of writer, actor and director Nick Lane, who applies the physical-theatre resourcefulness and multiple role-playing of his Hull Truck mentor, John Godber, to tell children's tales in a manner no less imaginative than Walt Disney. Last year, it was Beauty And The Beast; this time Victor Hugo's sad French tale goes bouncing around the Studio in a joyously irreverent piece of storytelling.

The bell faces belong to Lane and his co-star, Emily Fairman, who are credited in the programme as playing Gringoire and the dancing gipsy girl Esmerelda, but play anything and everything, often at the same time, always with brio. In one gloriously mad moment, such is their speed of change and desire to keep the story ticking along, they end up playing the dastardly Frollo, each looking as shocked as the other as to how such an event came to pass.

You could blame Pierre Gringoire, the bumbling, incompetent and frankly useless playwright who provides Lane with a narrator, commentator and conduit for comedy. Gringoire sets the scene, steps outside the scene to comment on his playwriting skills and repeatedly surprises himself by finding himself in scenes that don't involve him. No wonder he is the butt of Fairman's jibes when he has to play simultaneously the vainglorious, blond-wigged city guard Captain Phoebus, bell ringer Quasimodo, a goat and a dozen city guards.

The talking goat, sometimes Lane, other times Fairman, is Esmerelda's long-suffering, laconic stage partner, and together they make for a warring northern club act, forever arguing over whether the goat's name is the exotic Djali or plain old Julie.

To go with the multiple roles and multiple-role playing, there are multi-personalities too. Fairman's Esmerelda is a northern lass, except in the presence of captain Phoebus, when she goes all French on us, and in an inspired use of puppetry, Lane's gentle Quasimodo has an aggressive talking hump on his shoulder to represent his inner turmoil.

Adults will enjoy this fast-moving, clever show as much as children, for whom Lane serves up plenty of jokes - maybe too many - involving trumping. Yet for all the daftness, such as Phoebus's pronounced lisp and a rubber chicken fight, there is a serious core to the drama. "Friendship comes in all shapes and sizes", says the programme cover, and Gringoire finishes the play in shades and laden with bling as he raps about the need to address the issue of bullying.

This is a five-star family show for the Easter holidays, a Hunch with punch and punchlines. You must go.

The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, The Studio, York Theatre Royal, until April 24. Box office: 01904 623568.

Updated: 12:00 Monday, April 05, 2004