Book of Shadows – Good, Evil and 500 Puppets (review) *****

Book of Shadows is equal parts funny and intense. The booming voice of the villainous Rasputin and the loud electronic music sets up the scene for an epic adventure from the very beginning. The show breezily peppers in laughs and quick-witted banter about current politics, but it does not hesitate to go dark and spooky when it needs to. At its core, this is a story about good versus evil and it does not tread lightly when trying to make its antagonists scary.

It’s an incredibly skilful piece of work that combines theatre and visual arts seamlessly. The creators (Mochinosha/Book of Shadowz) bring this gripping story and fascinating world to life with the use of over 500 puppets. From an audience standpoint, it looks so seamless and simple, but it’s clear that this show took an enormous amount of work to come to life the way it did.

It has the flavour of a Young Adult novel. The protagonist is Vi, a teenage girl whose life gets turned upside down when her father leaves her with her maternal grandmother, Baba Helena Blavatsky, after masked intruders attack them in their own home. Vi needs to forget everything she thought she knew about the world to discover the secrets of Magik (with a k) and save her new friends, all with the help of her feisty grandmother.

The Fringe is at its best when it platforms diverse stories and engages its audience with something entirely new. Book of Shadows does exactly this, and it’s by far some of the best work you will witness at the Fringe this year.

Big Belly at Underbelly, Cowgate, 5th till 30th August (except 19th)

Photo credit: Robin Mair