Last week Oxford choreographer Susie Crow premiered her new, full-length work in London, and it proved to be an entertaining evening. The piece is based on a novel by Diana Wynne Jones, which Crow and her team have simplified, leaving us with a still complex story of three children who visit their aunt, the Maria of the title. At first they find life boring, and are forced to help out at their aunt's formal tea parties, but soon they find themselves involved with magic, a struggle for power, a ghost with a message and a magical green box whose contents save the day in the end.

Crow has assembled an excellent cast ranging in age from 18-year-old Chiara Vinci, who plays the young heroine Mig, to Ruth Posner - really frightening in the title role - who must now be in her seventies; I remember her decades ago as a fine dancer with London Contemporary Dance Theatre. The piece is full of invention, and I was particularly amused by Maria's tea-time guests Mrs Twinset, Mrs Tweedy and Mrs Floral - three uniformly angular ladies with their completely inane husbands. Katherine Kingston is outstanding as the older sister Betty, dancing and acting with great charm, and in the second act has a lovely falling in love' duet with the excellent Davide Camorani. Indeed it's in this, and in the first act duet with Camorani and Jo Meredith (pictured), that we glimpse Crow's classy pedigree - many years in the Royal Ballet and as an independent dance-maker.

Background film is used very effectively throughout this production, and blends in well with the live action on the stage and Tom Armstrong's imaginative score.

It's hoped that this enjoyable show may go on tour next year, in which case there's every chance it will come to Oxford.