WELCOME to York playwright Mike Kenny's adaptation of Hansel And Gretel at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

The setting is dinner time as a family gathers around the table but today, instead of the usual grumbling about the food, they begin to tell the tale of Hansel and Gretel. The story comes to life as Mum's knitting becomes a witch's outfit, the tea cosy a mouse, and Mum, Dad and their two children sing, laugh, quake and cry their way through Grimm's tale.

Directed by SJT associate director Henry (CORRECT) Bell, Hansel And Gretel is being brought to life in The Round with a Bavarian-inspired design by Lucy Weller and an a cappella soundtrack composed by Henry's friend Oli Steadman, from the band Stornoway no less.

“Hansel and Gretel celebrates great storytelling and I hope that, after watching this show, aunts and cousins, brothers and sisters, mums and dads and anyone tucking into their Brussels sprouts can feel inspired to embark on a story with a turkey leg as a prop or a Christmas hat as a castle,” says Henry, whose cast comprises husband and wife Peter Basham and Elinor Lawless as Hansel and Gretel, company newcomer Eithne  Browne as Mother and the Wicked Witch and Jamie Chapman, from this summer's SJT production of Neville's Island, as Father and a Giant Mouse.

"I wonder how many people in Yorkshire must have seen a Mike Kenny play by now!" says Henry. "You just feel, reading his script, that you're in safe hands, but it's still exciting to discover what he's written.

"The fact that he set up the play as a family telling the story around a table just makes it work so well, and also so Christmassy because Christmas, for me, is about sitting around a table for seven hours!"

Coupled with Lucy Weller's design with its "really traditional Bavarian feel", Kenny's play is a celebration of the simplicity of storytelling, where children will go away and promptly want to make things using their imagination. "Sometimes a box is more important than the gifts inside it," says Henry. "It also helps that as an actor himself, Mike Kenny has a real understanding of what theatre is."

Like children, Kenny applies his imagination too. "It's all very silly," says Henry. "There's a Giant Mouse in Mike's version that I can't see in Grimm's version, and the longest song in the show is sung by the Mouse, so the show is a combination of theatrical naughtiness and brilliant storytelling, which works really well in the Round."

It has been said that pantomime cannot work in the 360-degree demands of The Round, but children's shows have always worked well on the SJT stage, be they Alan Ayckbourn's family plays or Andrew Pollard's Christmas fantasies.

"I'm rather militant about theatre in the round as I believe you can do anything in there," says Henry. "Breaking down the fourth wall is so much easier in there, and there's a light-heartedness to the storytelling that that gives shows in the round something they might not have elsewhere.

"For me, the atmosphere should feel like when you read a story to your child. I was lucky enough to have that experience and happily children still do. This play should leave you wanting to tell stories at home over Christmas when it's important to be silly and to have fun.

"There are times to be serious and times to be silly, and Christmas is one of those times to be silly!"

Hansel And Gretel runs at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until December 27. Box office: 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com. Suitable for age five upwards.