Emil And The Detectives

National Theatre, London SE1

4 Stars

In Erich Kastner's much-loved Emil And The Detectives, written in 1929, the young Emil sets off from the provinces for Berlin.

He leaves behind his hardworking single mother, who entrusts him with her savings, to be given to help her family there.

But he is hoodwinked on the train by con artist Mr Snow who steals the money and then the chase begins, with Emil enlisting the help of the children of Berlin as "the detectives" and they hunt down Snow to get the money back. 

The stage is crowded with children as they cycle and hunt down the evil thief through an urban Berlin of trams and sewers, where Bunny Christie's set design of towering grids and filmed projections acknowledge 1920s German expressionism. 

Older audience members will recognise the serious undertones of Kastner's tale, in which the adults' dialogue reveals authoritarian intolerance for deviation and one boy, who brooks no dissent, tries to bully the weak and vulnerable.

It is no wonder that Kastner's books were among those tossed onto the flames in Berlin during the infamous "burning of the books" by nazi thugs in 1933.

It is a refreshing change that a children's story features a working-class single mother and the city, not the country, is the liberating environment for the child. 

Ethan Hammer is a lively Emil and his sidekicks Toots (Georgie Farmer) and Pony (Izzy Lee) give comic and talented performances. Though sometimes the children's voices are swallowed by the huge Olivier stage, the sheer scale of numbers and the action soon compensate.

Stuart McQuarrie as Mr Snow is everything a villain should be - monocled, moustached and portly, he tries to induce our hero to join him in crime as he comically laments that "it is lonely in the financial sector."  

The finale is a panto-like chase after Snow through the audience and is enormous fun for children and adults alike. 

For children to see a classic such as this on the grand scale of a National production is a wonderful experience but the theatre's "7-plus" guideline is correct in advising that there's quite a lot of dialogue which could prove difficult for younger children.

Runs until March 18. Box office: (020) 7452-3000

Yvonne Lysandrou