Expect Big Trouble In The Little Bedroom when Hull Truck Theatre arrives at York Theatre Royal on Wednesday.

Billed as a new musical adventure for the Millennium And Beyond, John Godber's first play for children as well as adults revolves around Stan West, who is 11, quiet and quite, quite ordinary: a born loser in fact.

Young Stan has never done anything exciting in his life and neither have his parents. At school, his teachers are worried; he lacks confidence, is shy, and the school bully makes his life hell. Even the girl in his life, Ginger Jones, thinks he is dull.

However, when Stan finds an old hammer in his granddad's cabbage patch, weird and wonderful things begin to happen, and strange visitors appear: the Mysterious Men from the Ministry; the New York Mafia; a two-headed policeman, and Thor, the Viking. Suddenly, in a new case of hammer power, Ginger finds Stan totally attractive.

The roles of Stan's dad and Thor go to Mark Stratton, an actor thoroughly at home in the Theatre Royal after performing in repertory productions of Having A Ball, Up'n'Under, A View From The Bridge and last year's Behind The Scenes At The Museum, when he again played a dad, Ruby's father.

He is a big fan of Big Trouble, which he believes is now sharper and has developed more layers since the premiere at Hull Truck Theatre in December 1999. "What is really charming and clever about this play, as with Alan Ayckbourn's Callisto #7, is that it's a roller-coaster piece of entertainment for kids but within that it tackles the issue of what children do in the absence of their parents," says Mark.

"In Big Trouble, the father is missing, the boy is lonely, and Godber looks at how Stan uses his imagination and expresses all the fears and flights of fancy that a child has."

Godber's play was inspired by a family visit to the Jorvik Viking Centre in York, which prompted his daughter Elizabeth, who was five at the time, to imagine what it would be like if one of the Viking figures were to come to life.

"It's a wonderful starting point for a play," says Mark. "I think John felt there was a shortage of really good work for family shows, apart from pantomimes and David Wood's plays, and so he wrote Big Trouble, and it's a show that suits seven years olds and 70 year olds alike."

Big Trouble In The Little Bedroom, Hull Truck Theatre Company, at York Theatre Royal, April 11 to 14. Tickets: £4.50 to £6.50, with concessions available; ring 01904 623568.