"Anything to me is sweeter/ Than to see Shockheaded Peter" wrote the asylum doctor Heinrich Hoffman when he penned his mock-cautionary tales for children in the mid-19th century. One hundred and fifty years later there has seldom been an evening in the theatre so sweet as Cultural Industry's junk-opera version of these poems about foolish Harriet who plays with matches, Augustus who will not eat his soup, and cruel Frederick who finds that the dog bites back.
Since this show first hit the boards in 1998, its mixture of the macabre, malevolent and monstrously funny, combined with the weird, compelling hurdy-gurdy music of the Tiger Lilies, has won it a cult following. But this is much more than just a new Rocky Horror-type show. For a start, it is inclusive: a bright, not-too-easily frightened eight-year-old would enjoy it as much as a 21-year-old dripping tongue studs and irony.
It revels in the myriad possibilities of theatre, harking back to the plush curtains of Victorian pop-up theatre but simultaneously nudging at the boundaries of dramatic practice. It uses the simplest of techniques (puppetry, cardboard cutout sets) in the most sophisticated manner. It constantly reminds you that theatre is theatrical - something you can all too easily forget if you spend too much time in the dark watching Yasmina Reza plays.
And the content bears repeated viewings. On the one hand, it is about how much we British hate our children; but on other levels, it explores the terrible pain of parenting and the murderous impulses when we discover the pink, perfect, chubbybaby growing into an individual with a mind and traits of its own. One of the things the show does marvellously is to use the Home, Sweet Home motif to remind us that the very place where children should be safest is often the most dangerous environment for them.
There is something for everyone in a show that swings wildly between farce and tragedy, the most delightful of dreams and the nastiest of nightmares. By daring not to take itself too seriously, this 90 minutes offers some seriously good entertainment that gives the West End a welcome kick up the bum.
• Until April 28. Box office: 020-7369 1734.
