Puppet Lab

Forget Punch and Judy. 'EH6' is billed as an 'adult' puppet show, peppered with swearing and insights into the gritty realities of life in a Leith tenement block, as told by a teenager who flees her father's abuse to the safety of the stairwell. From her perch on the stairs she spins a tale of love and loss based loosely around the exploits of Orpheus in the underworld. Unfortunately the fantastic puppetry is let down by a mediocre script that lags in places, and aside from the regular expletives there is nothing in this show that would be unsuitable for children. The puppets are beautifully made and manipulated, but the recorded voiceover detracts from their lifelike movements and lends the performance a slightly static quality. Similarly the choice of music undermines what would otherwise be beautiful and elegiac dream sequences. Having said this, there are some wonderful moments, including a gnashing three handed glove puppet Cerberus, and a kitsch fluffy Orpheus winging his way through Hades, which demonstrates that there is definitely more to puppetry than Pinocchio. [Harriet Shawcross]