When a child is tucked up in bed on a stormy night, he or she feels safe, cocooned and insulated from the threats and insecurities of the real world. But in Staffan, Goethe's delightful play for young children, translated from its Swedish original, The Boy may be slumbering even though his thoughts are wide awake and active.
While his peaceful alterego, Elle, sits playing quietly with his toys in the sitting room, his naughty, restless thoughts, Bee and Arr, come bounding in, all mischief and agitation, intent on giving him - and the audience - a tortuous time.
It turns out that The Boy has plenty to fret about - he has broken his father's expensive flask by sledging down the perilous Death Slope, goaded on by the gang of tormentors, who are making his life away from home an absolute misery.
We know this, not through sharing in The Boy's confidences, but through the subversive tale-telling of Bee and Arr.
This is Richard Croxford's directing debut since he took over as artistic director for Replay Theatre-in-Education - and a lovely job he has done of it, not least in his choice of this unsettling little play and his assembling of the inventive and cohesive creative team of designer David Craig, composer Debra Salem, choreographer Rachel O'Riordan and lighting designer Amy Smyth.
In Craig's handsome, deliberately oversized set, the three children are beautifully played by Nuala Reilly as the gentle Elle, with Claire Cogan and Sean Paul O'Rawe bringing tremendous energy and grotesque Gothic humour to the wild carry-on of The Boy's worst inner fears.
One Night in February is at the Ardhowen Theatre, Enniskillen, on April 3rd and The Market Place, Armagh, on April 5th and 6th