The tales of ETA Hoffman are not for the faint hearted. They are the stuff of nightmares rather than children’s dreams, one would have thought.

Yet this production by the Theatre Royal’s children’s theatre team is the centrepiece of a Family Theatre Festival, and the children simply love all the gruesome bits.

It has familiar credits in writer Hattie Naylor and director Lee Lyford.

The same tale is of course the basis for one of the world’s most popular ballets, which spares us the gore but not the sinister ambiguity of Drosselmeier.

At the heart of the story is a romance between Clara and Elias. Uncle Drosselmeier is a friend of the family who brings exotic Christmas presents for the children and tells them dark tales which awaken their imaginations.

The story is told with wit, slapstick and now and then a little poetry. There is also music, wonderful gadgets in an ingenious set and a battle which involves the whole audience with paper planes as weapons.

There is much scampering around the auditorium, by an energetic troupe of actors, both before and during the performance.

Chris Bianchi finds a happy balance between eccentricity and dark wizardry as Drosselmeier. John Biddle, as Elias and the Nutcracker is also narrator and switches smoothly between geek and wooden soldier – not an easy feat.

Alexis Terry is Clara, at several ages, and the evil Mauselink, achieving a startling contrast in personalities.

Zara Ramm as Clara’s stepmother and the Queen in Drosselmeier’s story, and Henry Everett who conjured up four different characters, both display tremendous agility of mind and body.

The theatre festival runs until March 6 in all houses of the theatre.