After last year’s production of another Terry Pratchett book, Mort, Oxford-based Parabox raid the fantasy costume closet again to bring another Discworld adventure to life. The Truth is equally as ambitious, attempting to have its frivolous, yet thought-provoking, cake and eat it.

Set in the Discworld city of Ankh-Morpork, it tells the tale of William de Worde (Chris Carter) and his attempts at setting up a low-cost newspaper for the city. Among the stories of amusingly shaped vegetables and attention-seeking, exaggerating locals vying for column inches, de Worde manages to uncover what could be a conspiracy to take power of the city, by besmirching the good name of the city’s current Patrician/impresario Lord Ventinari (Calum Mitchell).

The Truth is one of Pratchett’s most acclaimed Discworld entries, not only because it is rich with the author’s usual Monty Python-style comic touches, but also because it has a lot to say about journalism, writing and ‘the truth’. It’s clear that Pratchett started off in newspapers. This production is pretty faithful to the spirit, if not the exact content, of its source material. Dialogue is at times so Pratchett-esque as to be practically lifted from the novel’s pages.

Its most obvious fault is sticking a little too faithfully to the book. Although action is pretty fast-paced, with several short, staccato scenes to break proceedings up, it’s perhaps not the most dramatic, the most theatrical, adaptation it could have been. The play begins with a cacophony of different voices, the narrative lurching into life with a series of overbearing voiceovers. There are lags in pace, and you have a feeling if the writer was not so in love with the source material, proceedings may have been snappier.

That said, for the vast majority of its running time it’s an engaging, funny and, considering the imbalance of the ratio of money to ambition, well-executed piece. A few wobbly performances and narrative issues aside, it’s great fun.