"Simply spell-binding": our verdict on The Ocean at End of the Lane at Sheffield Lyceum

Based on the best-selling 2013 book by Neil Gaiman and adapted by Joel Horwood, the major stage adaptation is a dazzling tale of fantasy, friendship and family, with plenty of myth and magic thrown in.

The spectacular tour-de-force takes the audience on an epic rites of passage journey with a dark difference.

Returning to his childhood home, a man (Trevor Fox) finds himself standing beside the pond of the old Sussex farmhouse where he used to play.

He’s transported to his 12th birthday when his friend Lettie (Millie Hikasa) told the Boy (who’s never named) it was in fact an ocean and a place where everything is possible.

In a plot that will appeal to fans of Netflix TV smash Stranger Things, the plucky young protagonists are plunged into a magical world, with their survival depending on their ability to reckon with ancient forces that threaten to destroy everything around them.

But the play, by the producers of War Horse and irected by Katy Rudd, also involves majestic puppetry — the monster is a breath-taking and powerful rival to anything seen in the Upside Down world of Stranger Things.

Speaking of baddies, Charlie Brooks — who played Eastenders’ villain Janine — is chilling as Ursula, pursuing the Boy (Keir Ogilvy) through a brilliantly staged sequence of multiple neon-lit doorways.

Her creepy presence can even be felt off-stage with her cackling like a demonic diva echoing around the Lyceum.

I’ve been a fan of Neil Gaiman’s books for many years, enjoying adaptations such as the BBC radio play of Neverwhere and more recently the Good Omens fantasy comedy TV series.

But the theatre is the perfect setting for this tale, which is a striking and hauntingly beautiful experience.