Review: The Rocking Horse Winner ****

North Country Theatre hit the major leagues with its Olivier Award winning The 39 Steps, which transferred to both the West End and Broadway.

You wouldn’t expect this version of the DH Lawrence story to garner similar success, but it would be foolish to bet against this inventive group winning high praise for the show.

It employs similar tactics to the previous massive hit, using the set and props in a way that you rarely see, a simple, small square stage being turned variously into a bedroom, garden, race track and psychiatrist’s office, with small switches that are brilliant in their simplicity.

When you see on stage a boy in the office of a psychiatrist, particularly when that boy has issues linked to horses, it is difficult not to immediately think of Peter Shaffer’s Equus.

That is an extraordinary piece of art and The Rocking Horse Winner can’t possibly live up to it – however, that it stands on occasion neck and neck with that piece is huge testament to this adaptation.

Paul is a disturbed young man who, when he stands astride his rocking horse, is somehow imbued with the knowledge of which nag will win a horse race.

Is it divine intervention or simply a disturbed mind? It doesn’t matter, because Paul keeps picking winners.

His spiral downward into total psychosis is terrifying to behold in a compelling performance from Mark Cronfield, which only occasionally falls into the trap of triteness when an adult plays a child. Nobby Dimon, directing, adapting and playing Dr Langman the psychiatrist, is gentle on stage, but as director takes the action by the scruff of the neck. The moments when the creepy rocking horse, to which Paul owes so much, comes alive are genuinely spooky in this atmospheric little piece that continues North Country Theatre’s run of good form.

Touring North Yorkshire venues to December. Info www.northcountrytheatre.com