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Space Hippo

 
Gillian Bain Review by Gillian Bain 2 Published: 4 Aug 2025 Underbelly, Cowgate Show Dates: 31 Jul 2025-24 Aug 2025

With only five years to save the planet from complete environmental catastrophe, what is the only solution? To send a hippo into space to block the sun, of course! This absurdist political resolution to a very real crisis is played out through a bilingual shadow puppet show that turns into a sort of intergalactic buddy road trip story. Sounds like there is a lot going on! Yet despite all this action, the storytelling often ends up feeling repetitive and slow.

Despite the glimmers of stardust that can be found this Space Hippo is lacking gravity.

While the shadow puppets are undoubtedly beautiful and it clearly took a great deal of skill to create the piece, it falls flat. What at the beginning feels as though there may be a powerful political allegory coming, ends up amounting to little. The musical backing is a real highlight – reminiscent of the silent movie era – and there are some fun characters we meet along the way. However, despite the glimmers of stardust that can be found, this Space Hippo is lacking gravity.

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The Blurb:

Earth is dying. Nothing can be done. Our only hope is to launch a hippo into space. Along the way she will encounter new worlds, strange alien creatures and end up at the centre of an intergalactic war. Hilarious, weird and epic science fiction from Japan, experienced through award-winning cinematic shadow puppetry. The performers project over two hundred handmade puppets onto a large screen to create a live analogue motion picture before your very eyes. 'Surprisingly touching and beautifully executed' ***** (CBC). 'This is theatre at its best, magically conjuring truth from imaginatively conceived absurdity' ***** (ThreeWeeks).