FOLLOWING the out-and-out joy of 2008 rock ‘n’ roll panto Mother Goose, it seems the Everyman doesn’t want to grow up just yet.

Their first show of 2009, The Sandman, described as being "for adults and brave children", does not ignore their younger audience – even if it is willing to make sure their dreams are slightly more vivid for the foreseeable future.

A sense of circus sideshow and gothica prevails this enticing work from Spike Theatre, now celebrating ten years of touring, which has evolved on the same street as the Everyman and is an outstanding city-grown talent that really should be cherished. Watching this production, placed in the 1870s in a Scandinavian or Germanic fairy tale land of the best tradition, it is hard to believe – and wonderful to find – that the seeds were sown on Hope Street. The Sandman, a tale based from ETA Hoffman’s short story of the same name, may be one for children (if they are not asleep when the Sandman comes, he takes their eyes) but works on many levels.

Twelve-year-old Greta (a spellbinding Kate Crossley) lives with her adoring father (Steve Wallis) but daily life is interrupted by the arrival of the mysterious Cornelius (Anthony Cairns), and things, day or night, take an unsettling turn.

There is song, too, performed by the cast and the ever present musician Matthew Wood, surrounded by a variety of instruments at the front corner of the stage.

Whether providing soundtrack or sound effect, his work is pivotal to the whole play and builds an incredible atmosphere.

The set, an asymmetrical interior of a house, with crooked windows all the better for puppet shows and tricks of the light, making for way dream sequences – showing the grotesque Sandman in all his glory – on occasion really chills the spine amidst its dark laughs and poignant climax.

The Sandman is on at the Everyman until February 21.