A young, game troupe telling a simple tale with some inventive staging makes for an enchanting bed time story. The archetypal tale is of a vain boy getting cursed and needing to break said curse and eventually begging his parents for their forgiveness. Through some remarkably compelling physicality, simple props, and soundscapes made through exclusively human means (vocalisations, snapping of fingers, and slapping of thighs for example) the audience is taken along with the Star Child as he searches for his mother through forests and cities, encountering an evil magician and kind woodland creatures. The actors are constantly shifting between characters, but not distractingly so, with a bit of meta-story telling tossed in as a framing device. They all give enthusiastic performances and are never less than kinetic.The piece bursts at the seams, cramped into a tiny space at Sweet Grassmarket, which causes concern when actors are on top of actors and their heads are scraping the ceiling. It also seems slightly odd that the show is so late in the day (22:20), since children would be mesmerised.
