What’s the biggest lie you have ever told? I ask actor Gavin May, the lead in the Chickenshed’s Christmas show, Pinocchio, which opened this week. “I don’t think you want to know,” he laughs coyly. Somehow, after a chat with this affable young man, I can’t imagine it’s all that bad.

Joining Chickenshed seven years ago, on the advice of his drama teacher after his family moved from Islington to Enfield, Gavin says in many ways being part of the theatre has changed his life.

“It helps you to understand people,” he explains of the award-winning inclusive theatre, which is made up of a children’s and youth group, as well as a professional company.

“When I was younger, I probably wouldn’t have understood why a disabled person would want to dance, I would physically think they can’t, but Chickenshed has shown me you can adapt things and see things in a different way. It’s changed lots of views I had and has helped me mature.”

The 23-year-old made his stage debut with the Chickenshed as a mouse in their Christmas production of Nutcracker in 2002 and hasn’t looked back since, being taken on as trainee artistic staff member at the theatre, completing his BTEC in Performing Arts and studying for his BA in Inclusive Practice at Middlesex University.

Getting back to Pinocchio, Gavin will lead a cast of over 200, ranging in age from seven to 50 plus, every night, and with four rotas of performers involved with the run, the total ensemble number tops 650. Still, Gavin insists that rehearsing with such a large group has been a “fun experience”.

“There are so many kids in rehearsals and it’s cool to think I used to be one of them. Now rehearsals give them the opportunity to look up to me and think let’s do that, let’s live up to playing the lead, if he can do it, I can go for it too.”

As a “huge fan” of Jackie Chan from a young age, Gavin has always been aware of the power of movement, studying the kung fu martial arts wing chun from seven upwards, and it seems this early understanding has informed his research for Pinocchio.

“I watched loads of videos on YouTube of stringed puppets. I knew I wouldn’t have strings for my character, so I wanted to study how puppets’ legs and arms move. But my biggest challenge has been the singing.”

And that famous nose that grows with every lie Pinocchio tells? “It’s an electronic device that goes up my back,” Gavin reveals.

As for the story itself, the Chickenshed’s heart-warming version of the timeless classic stays closely to the original, with Geppetto (Iain Whitmore) carving a little puppet, Pinocchio, who wants to be a real boy. Featuring the company’s inimitable and exuberant style of music, laughter, tears and drama, we follow the wooden character as his journey takes him from circus to school, from the strange world of Freetown to the ocean and back home again, pursued by a devious Fox (Joseph Morton) and his Cricket (Michael Bossisse) sidekick.

“I think it’s a great adaptation of Pinocchio that you wouldn’t see anywhere else in the world,” Gavin enthuses. “Nowhere else in the world would you see Pinocchio played the way I play it, as an acrobatic Pinocchio, nowhere would you see the sets that Chickenshed create or the number of cast members. It’s very unique.”

Pinocchio runs at The Rayne Theatre at Chickenshed, Chase Side, Southgate, London, until Saturday, January 16. Tickets: 020 8292 9222, www.chickenshed.org.uk (£10-£19)