Words: Trudy Lynn 
Image: Robin Mair

4 Stars 

Book of Shadows is technically brilliant and epically silly. The team behind the show, Seri Yanai and Daniel Wishes wrote, designed, cut and painted all the puppets and the show itself is an intense endeavour as they balance 400+ puppets, effects and voices while telling the story. It’s quite the undertaking and they didn’t miss a beat.  Every joke landed (warning: the humour is black) and I was entranced through the plot’s twists and turns. 

They tell the story of Vi, a girl raised not to believe in magic despite her  hallucinations. When she becomes endangered, her father sends her to stay with her grandmother, the Ukrainian mystic and magic user Madame Helena Blavatsky. What follows is a fun romp through various real world occult groups with lots of fun punching up at the billionaires.  

As a piece of theatre, the characters are lovable yet ridiculous, the story-telling a lot  of fun, the gags somewhat constant. As puppetry, it’s spectacular. The cut outs are  projected onto a screen. Actors/puppeteers balance moving elements and switching out backgrounds, overlaying others, zooming in, all while voice acting every  character. The effects create a cinematic puppetry experience. There are some particularly good effects for lightning and a sequence with ink in water also projected to create a feat of imagination. For a brand new show finished just before the  performers arrived in Edinburgh, it feels well worked and reasonably seamless. 

Believe in magic or don’t. Either way, a tiny frog wizard is telling you to buy tickets. 

Book of Shadows
Big Belly at Underbelly Cowgate
18.30
5-30 Aug