I HAVE read the book, seen the film and now the stage play.

Based on John Boyne's novel it is a 'rites of passage' tale with a dark twist.

A fictional story of two boys and their fragile friendship during the Second World War.

From both sides of the barbed wire.

It never fails to move people of all ages - no matter how it is conveyed.

It is set during the Holocaust.

And the message is still the same - why did life become so horrific under Hitler?

An inquisitive nine-year-old boy from Berlin, called Bruno, is the son of a concentration camp commandant of Auschwitz.

He talks to his sister already in love with the Third Reich ideology.

She is besotted with a soldier.

He wants to be an explorer.

Bruno is innocence personified. He is curious about a place over the fields where people wear blue striped pyjamas.

This is the de-humanizing uniform the Nazis made for those they regarded as inferior.

Some stunning backdrop images illustrate the point.

A projection screen supplies the audience with the storyline dateline thanks to typed out sub-titles.

While playing nearby to the camp's exterior Bruno discovers and befriends a soul mate - a Jewish boy called Scmull with shaved head and a face too old before his time.

They communicate a lost, stolen childhood.

He comes alive thanks to the company of his new pal.

They were both born the same April day in 1934.

And touchingly they both haven't got a clue what is going on around them.

The two strike up a heart-wrenching friendship that is poignant, painful and yet - despite the gruesome scenario - playful.

Bruno wants to help his new mate find his father so he breaks into the camp.

And that is where the book, film and play become even more heart-breaking.

This two-hour production adapted by Angus Jackson is presented by the well respected Children's Touring Partnership. It is slick and skilfully done.

Delightful yet harrowing.

It is a story that makes the reader and any member of any audience wonder how man's inhumanity to man could happen leading to this devastaing conclusion.

It is hard to believe thete are more horrific tales of Nazi attrocities out there.

This play is a brave, sensitive, intense take on the Holocaust which will educate generations to come The silence of so many lambs to the slaughter here speaks volumes.

Young actors Jabez Cheeseman and Colby Mulgrew took their bows wearing striped pyjamas.

It said it all.

A production of great value.

8/10 Superb Storytelling

The play is at Playhouse until Saturday, April 4. Tickets are from 0151 709 4776.