THIS year is the 75th anniversary of the publication of Five On Treasure Island, the first of 21 books in Enid Blyton's famous Famous series.

Two devotees from childhood days, North Yorkshire theatre makers Phil Grainger, from Gobbledigook Theatre, and The Flanagan Collective's Alexander Flanagan-Wright, have acquired permission from the Enid Blyton Society to make a Famous Five adventure for family audiences this summer.

The premiere will make its way to the RHS Harlow Carr gardens in Harrogate, Sheffield Amphitheatre, Hay Literary Festival, Camp Bestival and Bath and Cheltenham Literary Festivals as the Gobbledigook Famous Five goes on an adventure in its own right. The journey began at The Mill at Stillington, in the late-April chill of the fairy-lit, wrap-up-warm wooded back garden, by the mill pond – Enid Blyton surely would have loved the enchanting setting – with a preview week on Wright's home turf.

Your reviewer caught the second night, when the cast of Sam Gannon's Julian, Rosie Brear's tomboy George, Robert Heard's Dick and Tori Klays' Anne, plus George's bounding (puppet) dog Timmy were nicely settling into their interactive performance. Crucially, there was plenty of participation for children – not least gathering together to draw a map of Kirrin Island, where a mysterious trunk of treasure is hidden – and for adults too on a trip around the English countryside, smugglers coves and seaside dens.

The performance style focuses on play and imagination, the cast improvising Ed Wren's set design from suitcases, a carriage, rugs and even the audience's choice of picnic items, and they play all the adult characters too, from an uncle to criminals in the "puppet" form of coats on coat hangers, each reduced to a monosyllabic status to signify that they are seen through a child's eye.

Writer-director Flanagan-Wright's company is full of energy, funny and quick to improvise; the show is delightfully nostalgic but not dated. Instead it reminds you how wonderful it is to think like a child and to never forget what that felt like. It might even make you crave for lashings of ginger beer.

Gobbeldigook Theatre present The Famous Five at RHS Harlow Carr, Harrogate, August 10 to 12 and 17 to 19, at 6pm, including daytime The Famous Five-themed picnic on August 11. Box office: 01423 502116 or at harrogatetheatre.co.uk. Also Sheffield Amphitheatre, in association with Theatre Delicatessen, August 15 and 16.