Do large furry beasts with sharp teeth and a penchant for human flesh scare you? If so wouldn’t you be terrified if you discovered said furry beasts living in the walls of your house? Thought so. Although they ain’t going to be there for much longer, because the wolves are coming out of the walls, and everyone knows when the wolves come out of the walls…it’s all over. So imagine the predicament of poor Lucy when she tells her family of their impending danger, only for Tuba-obsessed dad, jam-addict mum and computer crazed brother to be too busy tubaing, jamming and gaming to listen. Leaving it all down to Lucy and her trusty pig puppet.

Based on the book by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean and presented by Improbable Theatre and The National Theatre of Scotland, The Wolves in the Walls is “ a musical pandemonium” that delivers laughs and frights for children and adults alike. It’s not quite as dark as you would have hoped though, instead it is a tad twee, really belying the sinister undertones of the book. Maybe I’m just expecting another Shockheaded Peter with its macabre tales of comeuppance for wayward children.

This is a successful family show - the reaction from the audience is proof of that, but there is a lack of urgency and jeopardy to the whole thing. Lucy fears the wolves then tells her dad, her mum, and finally her brother – you’re waiting for each threefold event to unfold and before it has your imagination is already dreaming up all manner of gruesome ways to defeat those darned wolves. Given this is a “musical pandemonium” the music and the story should be as jagged as the wolves teeth to really rack up the fear levels.

There is one incredibly funny part though that had me giggling with delight, namely the sequence in which poor pig-puppet ascends the stairs to fittingly melancholic music (having been inadvertently abandoned by the fleeing family). This is amusing enough, but then the wolves start trying to catch pig puppet between their teeth and he is tossed from jaw to jaw…well I guess you had to be there, but it truly was funnier than a sausage, but I guess it depends how much you like bacon.

Lib Murray