A closed-down puppet orphanage reopens, leaving resident squatters Ozzie Airwalker and Jim Horgletooth having to deal with new friends and challenges.
We bought a bunch of pool noodles off Temu and we’ve dressed them all up in little costumes and together we’re going to puppeteer the life of one particular pool noodle from start …
Three Kelpies arrive on the reef for a play date only to find that the colour from the coral has all washed away! Kipper the Sea Dragon comes to the rescue but he can’t work alone.
The first banana appeared on earth 10,000 years ago.
They say you can get lost in a good book.
Puppet Zoo Adventure is a delightful blend of laughter and learning where animals come to life! Join Steph and Layla as they explore the Zoo and the animals that need your help!
Grace is kicking back for the summer holidays when her step mother orders her to go to her aunty Baba Yaga.
Ice Dragon is the third in the Dragon Song Productions’ trilogy.
A teacher’s magical seaside summer holiday is interrupted by an enthusiastic stowaway, Platypus.
Sophie meets Goose whilst on a trip to the park, and the pair soon become the best of friends.
A family show like no other from a company that specialises in creating original, innovative theatrical stories.
Bertie the Moon Dragon had one job to do and he has fallen asleep and missed his cue! Now how will the moon get up into the sky? Well, with the help of the young audience and their…
The tales of the dragons are special for many reasons.
A spooky fantasy adventure.
Brought to expressive life by the puppeteering skills of Andy Manjuck and Dorothy James, Bill is set to celebrate his 44th birthday by making some of the punchiest punch ever mixed…
The story of a friendship between a Boy and a magical, storytelling Tree.
Invisible illnesses.
Who is this who is coming.
As theatre adapted from classic texts goes, Gulliver’s Travels is one which has been less prominent in recent years.
Kira loves reading.
Imagine this: two books, one musical.
I never thought I could be so charmed by a centipede.
This one-man puppet drama follows a young performing artist with more than 20 years experience in Chinese puppetry, on his journey of self-discovery as he learns, practices and ult…
At dawn, the nation of the Gummy Bears declares war against the nation of the Dinosaurs.
Blind Summit – makers of Fringe hits The Table and Citizen Puppet – pull back the covers on puppet sexuality in contemporary Britain.
Jim Henson meets Oscar Wilde in this gay old romp through Victorian England that offers a modern interpretation of classic English farce – heightened energy, slapstick physicalit…
It’s in the Bag! are an award-winning storytelling company who delight in taking children’s imaginations on a magical journey, using rhymes, songs, creative games, drama and pu…
Sam and Rosie are off on their holidays.
An in-depth dissection of the 2016 episode of British reality TV show Come Dine With Me in which a contestant, incensed at having lost, berated his fellow diners in a virulently im…
A little girl is sent to retrieve a needle and thread from the ferocious Baba Yaga and must outrun the witch to reach her father’s hut.
In the dangerous and magical land of Sunderbans, living is about a fragile balance: between land and water, domestic and wild, human and human, calm and storm.
Join Monski Mouse and her super talented friends, for a live musical sing-a-long cabaret of nursery classics, song, puppetry and bonkers fun for 0-5s and their parents.
UK premier magician and kids entertainer in brand-new and hilarious interactive magic and puppet show for all the family.
Join our Imaginary Friend on the adventure of a lifetime, as they go on an adventure to find their missing friend.
Puppetry arguably reached a new level of realism and sophistication with War Horse.
The Quest to Save Neverland: Peter Pan and the Lost Souls Epic Tale.
By the end of 1928, all three Fail sisters will be dead: expiring in reverse order, youngest to oldest, from blunt object to the head, disappearance, and finally consumption.
A magical fairy tale for young and old.
In a kingdom where it is always night, the Owl had declared himself king and made sleeping forbidden.
If there’s one 44th birthday party you want to be going to this year, it’s Bill’s.
Blub Blub is a story about two fish chaotically cohabitating in an aquarium.
From the creators of Moon Dragon, Sea Dragon is the most perfect experience for babies under one at the Fringe in 2023.
From the creators of Moon Dragon, Sea Dragon is the most fun for under 5s.
Head to the bottom of the sea for a dramatic aquatic adventure! Join Professor Flotsam and Dr Wright in their brand new submarine as they look for the strangest creatures in the de…
‘Who is this who is coming?’ You are invited to the edge of your seat, on a journey to the darkest corners of the night.
What’s big, blue, bossy and turns up uninvited? A slightly annoying elephant, of course! One day Sam gets a very big surprise as a tired, hungry, antique-loving, cycling-enthusiast…
The touching, engaging tale of a shattered body trying to gather itself in a time of war.
Scotland has the highest rate of drug-related deaths in Europe.
‘In my dream, there were cows in a field.
Daughter is 17, living with Mother, whom she loves, and Father, whom she hates.
Kathputli Colony is India’s biggest community of traditional artists, home to thousands of musicians, dancers, puppeteers and street-performers.
Oh no! The piano has lost its music! But a little girl wants to help the piano find it again, and together they set off on a magical adventure.
An experimental reimagining of Shakespeare’s great play.
Hans the Storyteller, Reynard the Fox, and Gripp the Raven give a hilarious new telling of the classic fairy tale, The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
Experienced, friendly and engaging Scottish premier magician Leigh Milne in fast-paced and hilarious interactive magic and ventriloquist show for all the family.
Cross over into a whole new plane of performance.
An untraditional staging of classical Korean themes using the traditional puppetry of pansori and live music.
If someone happened to wander into the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh knowing nothing about Puppet State Theatre Company’s The Man Who Planted Trees, they’d certainl…
Jason Slavick’s Yellow Bird Chase shows us that the best children’s shows have something for everyone, whether it is the gibberish of the language, the compelling storyline or …
Earth is dying.
Oooh, tell me stories.
Straight from selling out London venues and her national tour, Bo Peep is bringing her flock to the Edinburgh Fringe! Counting sheep always sends Bo Peep off to sleep by bedtime, b…
Calling all brave heroes! Unveil a myriad of dark secrets and come face to face with some of the most magnificent monsters and terrifying beasts ever to walk the earth.
Unassuming at the start, A V Brodrenkova and Aimee Dickinson’s Foundations quickly breaks all boundaries and assumptions.
Behold: the eternal masterwork of puppetry for adults returns to Edinburgh! Willingly undergo a heart-wrenching parade of theatrical demises that will severely exacerbate your fear…
Way up in the deep blue night sky, a twinkling star hears a little girl’s birthday wish.
In this UK premiere, South Africa’s top ventriloquist, Conrad Koch, chats racism, apartheid and colonialism, with his double International EMMY award nominated puppet friend and …
Earth’s funniest footwear are back with their latest comedy hour.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s darkly comic tale brought to the stage for children and adults to share.
Mary, Chris, Mars tells the story of two astronauts who share a Christmas Day together after a chance encounter pushes them away from the crippling isolation of their solitude and …
This is the story of a humble spud Charlotte, who dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian.
‘Enter into a wacky world of sea monsters in high heels and angry mobs with tiny pitchforks’ (InDaily.
Of the 39 shows I saw in three and a half days this Fringe, the biggest gamble and least familiarity was Randy Feltface.
Puppetry, shadow theatre, mime and music all contribute to this charming oddity, which Caravan Theatre do indeed perform in a caravan.
Tatwood Puppets make their Edinburgh Fringe debut with the perfectly titled Cabaret of Curiosities.
As an unfinished text imbued with deep mystery, ranging from menacing abstract bureaucracy to detailed recounted memories, Kafka’s The Castle is a challenging undertaking, but th…
In our modern world, convenience is king and Amazon wears the crown.
Edinburgh Fringe has a number of shows that have a real cult status among festivalgoers, and up there with the cultest of them is the self-explanatory Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet…
Our Theatre’s Paradiso is ostensibly a puppetry show about three men of different nationalities, reflecting on the last days of their lives before moving onto paradise.
Choosing to adapt a fairly obscure Greek text like The Battle of Frogs and Mice (also known as the Batrachomyomachia) as a storytelling show for children would be a bold choice for…
Visual theatre company Tortoise in a Nutshell aim to inspire the imagination of their audiences with their creations.
If some of what you are about to read sounds completely bonkers then you are well on the way to an appreciation of You Are Frogs.
Reviewing Mr.
There are times when a particular title will jump out at you and niggle in the back of your brain.
In Underbelly’s Big Belly, the slow dripping from a leak in the roof onto the stage has never been a more apt presence in a production.
Backup, a mix of puppetry and gestural object theatre, is a half hour of pure delight.
Toujours et Près de Moi is a holographic puppet opera by multi-disciplinary arts company, Erratica.
If you have a ticket to Pants On Fire’s Ovid’s Metamorphoses, you have in your possession a way of securing the ferryman’s passage to one of the most mischievous and charming…
An enigmatic title is the hallmark of many Fringe shows – I’m sure no one knows quite what to expect from Duckpond: An Element of Mystery in Umpteen Samples or Lights Over Tesc…
The Paper Cinema’s Macbeth is a dazzling feat of storytelling.
The image of the tortured brooding man, bewitched, bothered and bewildered by some winsome and naïve woman, is long burnt into of literature.
Pinecone Penguin Theatrical’s Heartwood has all the makings of an enchanting production, but the slow and insipid script just does not deliver.
Emotive, impassioned and poetic, Evocation uses puppetry and poetry to tell the story of Marie-Anne, a young girl in fin de siècle Brighton.
Arm is the spooky exploration of junkyard puppetry you never thought you wanted.
Alex In Shadow from UCLU Runaground proves that puppetry is not just for children.
Sam is scared of the dark.
Inspired by a Kafka story, writer Josh Luxenberg and Brooklyn-based Sinking Ship have created a weird and wonderful piece of theatre in A Hunger Artist (Kafka Adaptation).
Imagine a blockbuster movie: now imagine that movie where all the characters are played by an unassuming yellow sponge.
It’s always difficult to tell a story that audiences are familiar with and manage to find a new way to engage them in it, but in Box Tale Soup’s new adaptation of Oscar Wilde�…
It’s very easy to write a story that grabs someone’s attention.
The truth about fairy tales, all too often forgotten by us grown-ups, is that the best ones are meant to be scary, albeit in an ultimately reassuring context.
In order to snare the attention of an average jaded and time-poor festival-goer, you’re going to need a pitch that can stop them in their tracks on the Royal Mile and accept the …
Oyster Boy is a comic telling of the fictional relationship between two young lovers on Coney Island and their subsequent journey into marriage.
Gentle and well-meaning, The Wonderful World of Lapin is a good attempt to introduce young children to the French language.
The technical choreography from Flabbergast Theatre that delivers this consistently joyful, yet bleak, puppetry extravaganza is exceptional.
Manual Cinema is a very special kind of company.
The Backyard Story, directed by Chen-Chieh Sun with lively music composed by Chien-Hsun Chen, is a charming black-light theatre show for children aged 5+.
From the team behind Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs comes a brand new adaptation of David Walliam’s children’s book The First Hippo on the Moon.
Swan Bake is a riotously trippy and acerbically funny show.
‘Spiral down the stairs to the world of the inventor.
An umbrella for a sword, a lamp as a tree and a wooden spoon as a nun, are just a few examples for the smart and innovative use of objects in The Tale of the Cockatrice.
In this exhilarating, disturbing exploration of the human mind, there is a cornucopia of theatrical styles, from the visually spectacular, breathtaking use of puppetry, to the slic…
This cosy story follows the adventures of Ingo, a dog on a mission to make his owners proud.
Awarm-heartedadaptation of the well-known children’s book about a plucky guinea pig – Christopher Nibble.
This is Richard II as you’ve never seen him before, in a purple shell-suit wielding power over his puppet kingdom with subjects that range from beautiful two foot high hand carve…
UCLU Runaground’s James and the Giant Peach is a fresh, fun and frantic adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic.
Clowning is largely known a children’s form of entertainment.
We meet Fred as he wakes up - cute little puppet stretching and yawns ensue.
Jane Austen’s satirical novel, itself a pastiche of recognisable and well-worn tropes of the Gothic literary genre, is here given new life by company Box Tale Soup, consisting of…
Opera Mouse is a pleasant Canadian import presented as a one-woman puppet show by Melanie Gall.
ShakeShakeTheatre present the tale of a man named Bumblegrum in a quirky and enjoyable puppet show for children.
In a tiny room at Sweet Grassmarket a man has placed a wide array of props, toys, figurines, dolls and detritus in an apparently haphazard way.
In Our Hands tells the story of Alf — trawler fisherman, boat captain, father — as he struggles with a changing industry, big business rivals, and his estranged son.
This is Manual Cinema’s first visit to the Fringe and they have brought with them a technical and awe-inspiring show that combines live music and shadow puppets.
Returning to Edinburgh after a six year hiatus, Bunk Puppets’ Sticks Stones Broken Bones is both an expert display of shadow puppetry and a joyous celebration of playfulness.
Possibly the most ridiculous show at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppets are in their ninth year and were greeted with a sell-out audience.
Shadow puppets have a reputation for being, let’s face it, a bit uncool.
Familia de la Noche’s production of Gulliver’s Travels is an adaptation of Jonathan Swift’s satirical novel following several adventures of Lemuel Gulliver as he travels to t…
La Pire Espèce have been rummaging in the cupboards: in Ubu on the Table coffee pots, cutlery, a glass jug and drawers full of unassuming objects populate the cast in an energetic…
Randy is a bald, bright purple Australian stand-up puppet with a really quick wit and a sharp tongue.
Improv comedy is a tricky beast - when it’s good, it’s very, very good; when it’s bad, it’s pointless.
Puppet pioneers Flabbergast Theatre have made an interesting move this year, establishing their own dedicated performance space, The Omnitorium, within the confines of Assembly Ge…
This show started beautifully and retained its magic right until the very end.
Fringe veterans Max and Ivan bring their show Unstoppable to The Warren for this year’s Brighton Fringe.
The Bookbinder is Trick of the Light’s enchanting fairy tale of a young apprentice bookbinder’s encounter with an old woman and her mysterious book.
Hysterical is a dark comedy exploring the boundaries of mental health and wellbeing in today’s corporate reality, where work-life balance often equals yoga, medication and therap…
What do you get when an impressionable young writer moves into a London squat with a couple of crack addict ballerinas and a pack of rats? Swan Bake! This mash-up of song, dance…
Life-sized animal puppets with fully articulated limbs come to life in front of your eyes in a cacophony of singing, dancing and plenty of audience participation.
Facing both her 80th year and an unveiling of a new piece of artwork, artist Gert has a lot to think about.
The Marked follows Jack’s crusade against the haunting demons that follow his life living rough on the streets of London.
Mwathirika is definitely an engrossing show.
‘Puppet Beowulf?’ my flatmate asked me with a raised eyebrow and quizzical expression as I left the flat to review Atomic Force Production’s new show.
In this devised piece, the company from the University of Pennsylvania’s Theatre Arts Program set themselves an almighty challenge in terms of the subject matter they deal with (…
If you give a quick flick through the Fringe programme, it will be fairly obvious that puppetry is on the rise in the theatre section this year.
There are some shows that you just get a good feeling about from the moment you step into the theatre.
A haunting and powerful adaptation of Madame Butterfly, Ramesh Meyyappen’s silent movement piece about love, lust and loss is hauntingly powerful and will stay with you long a…
This charming double bill from Puppets Being Theatre uses poise and precision to bring to life ingenious paper creations.
The Gomaar Trilogy has stylish puppetry and heartfelt sincerity – but its confident aesthetic fails to enliven a tired story of a male artist trying to accommodate his creative i…
Picture this.
Box Tale Soup’s latest show, Manalive, is an uplifting, intelligent and emotive triumph.
In this marvellous production from UCLU Runaground, the creatures from Lewis Carroll’s classic poem become metaphors for the inner demons a young boy must fight as he learns to c…
Jephan de Villiers may not be a familiar name to most, but after watching L’Enfant Qui it can definitely be said he is an interesting character.
A Little Man’s Holiday tells the tale of an office worker with a big imagination.
The Man Who Planted Trees was originally a tale from French author Jean Giono in the 1950s, now pieced together onstage with cloth hangings, felt animals, and wafting lavender (yes…
For those of a squeamish nature, this may not be the best review to read over your breakfast.
Best word to describe Bruce, a show built entirely around a block of yellow sponge: Absorbing.
There is something inherently heartbreaking about the small metal-framed chair standing centre-stage as the audience comes in, but no more so than when one of the show’s co-devis…
Embracing all the great theatrical traditions of silent comedy and vaudeville, Funny Bones Trash is the best kind of children’s show.
This ginormous spectacle transports you back to the time where the biggest excitement for children was when the travelling circus came to town.
Returning for their fourth Fringe, Sparkle and Dark bring their own fascinating and fantastical take on experiences of death and loss.
Blind Summit bring a mastery of puppetry to the stage, layering meta-narrative upon verbatim performance upon crime headline in an original look at the aftermath of the Jack and th…
Tatterdemalion is a one-man mime and puppetry show in which the audience are among the most essential elements.