Apples and hymns, forbidden fruit and dangerous books, hidden lives and lost dreams, flagellation and despair are all here in this moving show based on the lives of some of the poor women and girls incarcerated in Ireland's Magdalen asylums.
Produced by Paper Birds, this is an impressionistic and melancholy hour of physical theatre that tangles together and untangles the lives of six young women who all passed through a single room. If walls could talk they could tell stories, but here it is the furniture itself that seems to breathe as ghosts appear from under beds and through wardrobes. It is as if the room is brought alive by poltergeists and the power of adolescent despair and yearning.
The storytelling is not as clear and concise as it could be, but the show creates a palpable atmosphere, taking you right inside the tortured minds of these lost souls and exuding an air of innocence entrapped by evil that makes you think of the best fairytales. It is also deftly staged using an impressive sleight of hand and sleight of eye. A wonderfully uncynical and heartfelt show.
· Until August 30. Box office: 0131-668 1633.
