Mystery and magic in RSC's winter show The Box of Delights

The creative team uses innovative ways to stage some "extraordinary scenes", Piers Torday said

The Box of Delights, a retelling of John Masefield's classic about a boy tasked with guarding a magical box, is unveiled as the RSC's Christmas show.

The staging in the family show promised to be a "fantastic mix of the inventive and the breath-taking," director Justin Audibert said.

"We're telling the story through the imagination of a child," he added.

The show runs at Stratford-upon-Avon's Royal Shakespeare Theatre until 7 January.

"In many ways The Box of Delights was the first fantasy story for children, and with its classic good versus evil narrative, and three young children as the heroes, you can see its influence on books like the Harry Potter series."

The story is told "through the imagination of a child"

Piers Torday, who adapted Masefield's novel for the stage, said he "first fell in love with this magical story" when he saw the BBC television series in the 1980s.

Many of the series' special effects inspired those later used in Doctor Who, he said.

"What is fantastic is how the creative team on our new production have found their own equally innovative ways to stage the story's most extraordinary scenes, such as a car that turns into a flying aeroplane or a burning phoenix appearing from a tiny box," he added.

The festive show was adapted from John Masefield's novel

Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [e-mail]