A CHILDREN’S immersive theatre show inspired by themes and characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream entertained families over the summer holidays.

Proteus’s latest show Fairy Finders, by Scratch Built Productions, offered young children the chance to enjoy an immersive theatre performance where the audience is put right at the heart of the story.

Having always enjoyed Scratch Built Production’s shows in the past, I took my six-year-old son along on a rainy afternoon, joined by his two cousins and grandparents.

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As a child, I was obsessed with fairies, even writing to my tooth fairies who replied with teeny tiny letters back.

The show began with the audience being invited to visit the Museum of Basingstoke Fairies.

The room was set up with an emporium of precious fairy artifacts, relics and real evidence of local fairy folk from around Basingstoke which we could look at before attending an Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Fairy Finders.

I had an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia looking at the displays which brought back warm fuzzy memories from a childhood spent day-dreaming about fairies.

There were fairy outfits, intricate fairy houses discovered around Basingstoke, a fairy tea-set, fairy books, and even a strategically placed miniature copy of the Basingstoke Gazette, providing solid proof to attending children that fairies really do exist.

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The display captured my son's and his cousin’s imaginations, their eyes opening wide in wonder at the impressive collection, which must have taken enormous effort to put together.

Then, the AGM began and we were tasked with helping the hapless Fairy Finders to discover and document the magical presence of fairies in Basingstoke.

We were led on a magical adventure to find a real-life fairy and become official Fairy Finders, while being entertained with some strange and mysterious happenings along the way.

The creation space was transformed for the show as we were led on an exciting journey into different rooms, each beautifully set up to capture the imagination of the young audience.

Inspired by themes and characters from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream - including cheeky fairies and goblins who got up to mischief in the forest - the show had gentle storytelling, gorgeous puppetry, interactive sensory elements and lots of fun and giggles.

There was plenty of interaction and opportunities for the children to get involved, including finding their own fairy wings in the forest and documenting their own evidence of their magical discoveries.

My son and his cousins left chattering excitedly about what they had seen, their belief in fairies now firmly cemented.

Fairy Finders has now finished at Proteus Creation Space, however, if you missed out on the summer show, the venue offers a magical in-house Christmas show also by Scratch Built Productions.

This year's production is called Help! There's an elf in my house and will run from December 9 to 24. 

Tickets, which sell out fast, go on sale at 8pm on Sunday, September 24. 

Visit proteustheatre.com.