At last, the international Aurora-Nova World Theatre festival at St Stephens has the hit it deserves. This collaboration between Russia's Formalny and Baltic House theatres is truly breathtaking. Playful and wistful by turns, it is ravishing to behold, full of wonder and repressed emotion, conflict and resolution.
School for Fools is based on Sasha Sokolov's 1950s novel about a boy who is considered backward and sent to a school for the mentally ill. The play opens the door on memory and childhood and takes us into a dreamy world where trains clatter, pranks are played and cruelties inflicted, where adults move in mysterious ways and the teacher is always beautiful.
Two actors play different aspects of the same boy, moving behind and in front of white gauze curtains on a stage piled high with autumn leaves. The production may lack cogency for the English-speaking viewer, but no matter, because there is a transparent honesty about it. This is theatre that you ride like a wave, an exhilarating combination of sound, visuals, film, text and brilliant acting that makes you feel as if every nerve in your body has been stroked and the dark storehouse of memory opened up to the blinding light. Dazzling.
Until August 27. Box office: 0131-558 3853.
