Gisele Vienne's Jerk @ Traverse, 3 Feb

Gisele Vienne is a theatre maker who is not frightened by the darkest side of human nature. Kindertotenlieder, her last work to appear in Scotland, was a minimal mix of Boris’ drone metal, a text from Dennis Cooper and mannequins posed in a snow bound landscape. Slow and disturbing, it left behind an overwhelming feeling of despair and frustration, lamenting the death of children in ways that Mahler, who provided the title through his own miserable song cycle, could not imagine.

Jerk, Vienne’s entry in Manipulate, is the jolly tale of a serial killer who uses hand puppets to understand his activities. The audience are asked to play the role of psychology students while Jonathan Capdeviell plays the killer recreating his crimes.

It isn’t just the use of puppets that is shocking, although the sight of Sooty and Sweep killing for sexual kicks is disturbing enough. Vienne’s tone is cool, almost detached. The savagery of the crimes is not distanced by this questioning: rather, it opens up the mind of a murderer in a terrifyingly immediate manner.