WHAT a scrumptious treat! The Birmingham Stage Company's James and the Giant Peach at the Grand Theatre last week was every bit as magical as Roald Dahl's tremendous tale.

Adapting such a firm favourite to the stage must be a daunting task, but David Wood managed to bring all the magic, the excitement and the colour of the book very much to life.

The children -- and the adults -- in the audience were enraptured from the start as they were drawn into the bright nursery colours on the stage and into James' bizarre world.

Fluffy white cartoon clouds drifted across a summer-blue sky over a little wooden house as we watched James being harangued and bullied by his two hideous aunts, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker.

The stage adaptation lost none of Dahl's gleeful celebration of all things disgusting, and the children watched with outraged joy as bony Aunt Spiker picked her nose, finger knuckle-deep, before inspecting her findings and eating it with a vigorous chew.

Fantastic, colourful costumes made James' insect friends instantly loveable, and the huge, warm orange peach which dominated the stage gave the whole production a dream-like feel.

And a spectacular scene turned the airy floating set into immediate darkness, lit only by luminous, ultra violet creatures as we were taken under the sea while James wrestled a giant, glowing octopus to rescue his friend, Centipede, who had fallen from the peach and into the ocean.

Most James fans will have seen the animated film version of the story, and the stage version competed with -- and vanquished -- its cinematic rival by providing a good dollop of audience participation.

The children's favourite bit involved James' appeal to the audience to help keep the peach in the air -- and a huge round peach balloon suddenly floated across the stalls, to be batted from hand to hand across the theatre. Exciting, colourful, funny and warm.

Reviewed by Rachel Sills