Hull Truck Theatre
The audience sees above and below the floorboards – with a little help from puppets – as Mark Babych’s production cleverly plays with scale

A family forced to flee their home, to withstand enemy attacks and cruel weather – will they reach the haven they have heard of but never seen? Published just seven years after the end of the second world war, Mary Norton’s novel The Borrowers tells a timeless story, mythic in scope, domestic in detail, alternately thrilling and humorous in tone.

The Borrowers live in hidden corners of old houses, underneath the floorboards, behind the wainscots. Arrietty and her parents, Pod and Homily, survive by “borrowing” from the “human bean” inhabitants; an onion ring makes a perfect hula hoop for Arrietty, until her mother objects: “Don’t play with your food!” Television and film versions of the book use special effects to convey differences in scale. Theatre goes one better – it makes the impossible possible by setting audiences’ imaginations to work.

The Borrowers is at Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, until 4 January 2025