AN award-winning novel of childhood espionage and bitter-sweet growing up will transform the main theatre at Lighthouse in Poole this month.

Much-loved Dorset visitors Theatre Alibi have teamed up with the highly regarded Oxford Playhouse to stage their adaptation of the Michael Frayn novel Spies.

Set during the Second World War in a suburban close, two boys play at detectives.

As they covertly watch their neighbours from behind their neighbourhood hedges, hoping to uncover a German spy, they find themselves face to face with the one thing they had never suspected.

Spies is a tale of childhood innocence colliding with adult secrets, an intriguing cross between Atonement, The Go-Between and Just William.

The production is directed by Theatre Alibi's Nikki Sved who is delighted how the play has come together and thrilled with the response it has received from its audiences.

"It is a brilliant piece and it has been a real pleasure to work with it because it has been so wonderfully written by Michael Frayn," she said.

"We read it as a theatre when it first came out and all wanted to do it, so it is great that we have been given that chance."

Nikki added that the play focuses on two young boys in 1940s Britain who become convinced that one of their mothers is a German spy. They start to follow her to confirm their suspicions but discover that the truth is something completely different, but just as disturbing.

"We have had to be quite inventive when staging Spies because of the variety of sets needed," said Nikki. "The action moves from home to the railway and the boys spend a lot of time hiding in hedges, so there is a lot to work out. The choreography and movement is quite complex and there is a real air of playfulness about the project."

Michael Frayn is one of Britain's best-known playwrights, popular for modern classics such as Noises Off, about backstage life in a theatre, to Donkeys Years, Copenhagen and Democracy.

His first new play for five years, Afterlife, about the Australian impresario Max Reinhardt, opens at the National Theatre later this year. Exeter-based Theatre Alibi have turned Spies into a rich, funny and touching piece of theatre with compelling performances and a thrilling score played live on cello and accordion.

They are one of the UK's best-known and loved touring performing companies, as much at home in the UK's big regional theatres as they are in Devon's primary schools, where they are currently showcasing their delightful children's play Teapot.

You can catch Spies at Lighthouse in Poole from Tuesday to Saturday, May 27 to 31. Performances are at 7.30pm with Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2.30. Tickets cost £15.50 for evening shows, £10.50 for matinees, plus concessions. Call the box office on 0844 406 8666 for bookings and full details.