The shadowy backstage world of the theatre technician is brought into perspective and splashed all over in glorious Technicolor with this delightful show from Familie Floz, a German company whose mask-based work is reminiscent of early Trestle.
While a variety show takes place on stage - a mixture of opera, ballet and theatre - the backstage crew eke out lives of desperate ordinariness, squabble and get on each other's nerves, bumble around with wires and ladders and take solace from books and pets.
Then, one stormy night, some of the magic of the stage seeps into and invades the backstage area: ghosts walk, love is found and lost and death takes a bow. Wordless and yet somehow so expressive, full of yearning and yet also filled with joy, this is splendid and immensely skilful character comedy that has a quiet and cumulative power built entirely on tiny gestures, the tilt of a head and a hefty dose of slapstick.
The show is perhaps a little obvious and it veers towards the sentimental, but it is also charming and wistful and is performed with flair and energy right down to the final curtain call.
· Until August 22. Box office: 0131-558 3853.
