IMAGINE the inquest verdict, or conclusion as coroners now have to call it. Cause of death: killed by a voracious rhinoceros.

Such a bizarre fate befalls the parents of the titular James Henry Trotter, but this is the surrealist world of Roald Dahl, where a 1961 story of a killer rhino, a tragic orphan, transatlantic travel in an over-sized flying peach with garden bug friends, and a squelchy landing on the Empire State Building, are deemed entertainment for six year olds and upwards.

And entertaining it most certainly is in Max Webster’s fast-moving, far-travelling, actor-musician show in the Courtyard Theatre as the peach progresses to the Big Apple over 95 minutes.

Newly orphaned James (Chris Lew Kum Hoi’s little lad lost in the big shorts) becomes “the saddest and loneliest boy in the world”, his life made a misery when put to domestic use and abuse by Jess Murphy’s Aunt Spiker and Beverley Rudd’s Aunt Sponge. These two characters are more twisted than Cinderella’s Ugly Sisters, setting the tone for an adventure story, far removed from pantomime glitz in its encounters with sharks and seagulls.

Enter the insect sextet: Robert Pickavance’s Grasshopper, looking uncannily reminiscent of Billy Connolly; James Gow’s Glowworm; Rudd’s enthusiastic Ladybird; Paksie Vernon’s fastidious Centipede, and the two outstanding performers, Murphy’s ever busy, violin-playing Spider and Dyfrig Morris’s fretful Earthworm.

What a remarkable transformation from Morris’s tragic Lennie in Of Mice And Men at the WYP in March.

Director Webster revels in the delightfully dark yet uplifting script of Dahl specialist David Wood, marrying it to the colourful compositions of musical director Adam Pleeth in a piece of heightened storytelling theatre that is visually striking too with just the right level of fantastical exaggeration.

Fly Davis’s set and costume designs are fabulous throughout, whether for the insects or the interior of the peach with its carpeting, long ladder and air of a magical mystery tour.

All in all, the audience has a ball, especially when a giant peach ball comes bouncing their way.

James And The Giant Peach, Courtyard Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, until January 24 2015. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or wyp.org.uk