A hit and miss adaptation that fails to deliver its full emotional potential.

The publicity for Kate Mulvany’s stage adaptation of Kit Williams’ beloved children’s book, Masquerade, promises an evening that will delight everyone “from nine to ninety.” However this might be setting expectations a little high.

A literary phenomenon when it was first published in 1979, Masquerade tells the story of Jack Hare’s journey to deliver a love token, a golden hare-shaped amulet, from the Moon to the object of her affections, the Sun. Despite having to overcome several challenges, Jack eventually makes it to the Sun, but upon arriving he finds he has lost the amulet on the way. Williams’ genius was to make the book a kind of cryptic treasure map by burying a real bejewelled, 18-carat gold amulet somewhere in the British countryside. Clues to its location, encoded in the book’s illustrations, sparked a treasure hunt taken up by thousands across the world, propelling the book to cult status.

This adaptation, given its world premiere by the Griffin Theatre Company and directed by Lee Lewis and Sam Strong, faithfully sticks to the narrative of Williams’ fable, and by using a more accessible vernacular than that employed...