It’s not surprising to learn that Neil Gaiman was unsure his 2013 book, The Ocean At The End Of The Lane, would work on stage. So filled is it with fantastical beings, locations and scenarios, you’d be forgiven for thinking it could exist only in our imaginations or in a big-budget CGI film. Yet Joel Horwood who adapted the text, and Katy Rudd who directed the show, had other ideas; big, swirling, dream-like ideas that a book such as this demands and deserves.

Gaiman was initially inspired by his own boyhood, spent living near a thousand-year-old farm. What if its occupants had lived there since it was built? It’s an intriguing starting point, from which all manner of things can burst; and they do. The show might open with a very human event (a funeral) followed by a very ordinary scenario (a family breakfast), but from there, most of the action in this clever and compelling production takes place in a realm outside our own. 

A mighty creature from ‘the edges’ finds a way to creep inside a boy’s life in a bid to destroy it, and can only be thwarted by his newfound, farmhouse friend who hails from who knows when. Fifteen performers bring Gaiman’s words to life: half as named characters, half as a black-clad ensemble that embodies puppet monsters, trees and even the ocean itself. All beautifully lit and soundtracked, this is delivered with a simplicity that belies the hard work and ingenuity behind it.

Visual trickery and otherworldliness aside, here is a tale laden with metaphor and subtext. Money, loss, memory, family and friendship are among the emotional big-hitters Gaiman laced his book with, all of which are handled sensitively. There are nods to Harry Potter, Stranger Things and Gaiman’s own Coraline along the way, but ultimately this ocean has its own unique current. 

The Ocean At The End Of The Lane is on tour until Saturday 25 November; reviewed at Festival Theatre, Edinburgh.