Puppets, dangerous? So claim Blind Summit, a smart, lively young company bringing real verve to the art form. Their puppets certainly seem to be a bad lot: they drink, smoke and swear, fight and even kill. In one inspired scene, a wrinkled Chinese cleaner takes such umbrage with the book he's reading that he attacks it, stamping the life out of it. "That's a perfect example of the problem," says one of the puppeteers, at once rueful and wry. "Beautiful puppetry leading to book damage."
He's right to describe the show as beautiful. The puppets are exquisite, not least the chiselled Marlene Dietrich lookalike, whose gold velvet gown drapes voluptuously to the floor. And so elegantly, vibrantly choreographed is their animation that they radiate character. We sense the resourcefulness of the tiny puppet in the Mission Impossible sequence, as he clambers over chairs and leaps through the air; we melt at the sight of the businessman barfly, cradling his last beer of the evening as Jacques Brel croons Ne Me Quittes Pas. "Never fall in love with a puppet," Blind Summit advise, but they make it awfully hard not to fall in love with theirs.
· Until Wednesday. Box office: 0131-226 0000.
