Relatively few children have lived in a nursery with a nanny to attend to them, but many have owned a cherished toy. That's where the magic of “;The Velveteen Rabbit”; kicks in. Although it was written almost a century ago, its message rings true today: A toy need not be state-of-the-art to be cherished, and in the eye of a loving child a toy can become “;real.”;

The Boy (Seth Franke) receives several gifts one Christmas morning — a mechanical train (Jonathan Cannell), a wind-up spring-powered mouse (Zach Gravitt) and the titular rabbit (Maria Harr). The train and the mouse look down on the rabbit; not only does he lack moving parts, but he isn't even a commercial product. They were manufactured by toy companies while Rabbit was made by a woman in the community.

None of this matters to the Boy. Rabbit becomes his constant companion in a series of adventures at home and in a nearby forest. Rabbit's fur becomes worn and his colors fade, but the boy loves him all the more. Meanwhile, the Skin Horse (Isaac Ligsay), a toy that was the property of the boy's uncle, tells Rabbit that if a child truly loves a toy, it can become real.

Rabbit stays faithfully by the boy's side when he is stricken with scarlet fever, and rejoices when he recovers, but then come orders from the boy's doctor that everything that was in the bed must be burned.

As he waits to be burned along with the bedding, Rabbit sheds a single real tear. The Nursery Magic Fairy (Jocelyn Ishihara) appears and says that, until this moment, Rabbit was only “;real”; to the boy, but now he is going to become a real live rabbit.

Some time later, the boy goes into the forest, encounters the rabbit and — in this version of the story — feels the connection between them.

DIRECTOR RON BRIGHT keeps the story evenly balanced between humor and pathos. We feel the inoffensive rabbit's pain when the high-tech toys tease him for being stuffed with sawdust, and again when two flesh-and-blood rabbits tease him for being unable to hop and jump as they do. On other hand, the friendship of boy and toy is delightful to watch, and the old Skin Horse is the voice of wisdom and a consoling friend.

Franke is believable as a child despite the fact that he is taller than Karen Bauder (Nana), who plays the firm but loving nanny. Cannell and Gravitt are an animated duo as the snobbish high-tech toys, neither of whom, the Skin Horse hints, will remain unbroken long enough to become real.

Paliku Theatre's staging of “;The Wind In the Willows”; a year ago lacked costumes that clearly defined key characters, but Evette Tanouye Allerdings' designs for “;Rabbit”; make each character instantly recognizable. Harr's costume is a good representation of the rabbit seen in the original book; the train, mouse and horse are also recreated with costumes that define them without hampering the actors' movement.

A revolving set design by Lloyd S. Riford III takes the audience from the nursery to the forest and back again; minimal but effective use of lighting accents the mood of this old yet timeless story.