Twelve-year-old Lyra lives in a dusty corner of an Oxford college. It could be a lonely existence, for there is no immediate sign of her parents.

But she has her daemon Pantalaimon and a friend called Will for company, so life could be a lot worse. Then Lyra’s world is shattered, when she witnesses the Master of the college, no less, poisoning wine destined to be served to a distinguished visitor. As Morse would tell you, academic backbiting and argument is one thing, attempted murder quite another. Lyra has to flee, travelling to a whole series of parallel universes.

That, in an extremely truncated nutshell, is the storyline of His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman’s trilogy of fantasy novels. But how do you stage Pullman’s imaginings? In 2003, the National Theatre commissioned Nicholas Wright to turn some 1,300 pages of print into six hours of theatre – split into two shows of three hours each. Added to Wright’s script was every scenic device at the National’s command.

Now, undeterred by the scale of the project and no doubt on a fraction of the National’s budget, Birmingham REP has mounted its own full length production (directors Rachel Kavanaugh and Sarah Esdaile), which visited Pullman’s home city of Oxford last week. The National’s stage effects are replaced with black cloths, a couple of benches, a table, and some nifty lighting – nifty, that is, when the controlling computer is in a good mood, which wasn’t always the case during Part 2.

So much depends on the multi-tasking actors – taking an example at random, Geoffrey Lumb has to transform from the steward of Jordan College, Oxford, into Iorek, King of the Armoured Bears, then back into human form as an official in the Land of the Dead. Amy McAllister gives a truly memorable performance as Lyra, conveying both the spirit of a 12-year-old girl, and the feeling that she has acquired the wisdom of someone much older. Lyra’s parents turn out to be the scary Mrs Coulter (Charlotte Asprey), and the magisterial Lord Asriel (John Hodgkinson). But the zest of the whole ensemble cast is truly impressive, with a particular relish shown for Pullman’s use of language, and his fondness for changing a couple of letters in a familiar word, giving it a new meaning – Wright’s script follows the books closely.

But it’s the daemons, one shadowing each major character, that really make this production. Sinuous, ever-moving puppets are used to create daemons in animal form, each with its own very distinctive personality. Magic and fantasy indeed.

His Dark Materials tours to the Royal & Derngate, Northampton, from May 13-17. Tickets 01604 624811 (www.royalandderngate.co.uk).