A man lies asleep on a table surrounded by books, lit by an anglepoise lamp and some other old fashioned domestic lamps. A vintage record player is scratching out a tune. When the record runs out, the man startles awake complaining about the player being ‘newfangled technology’, and the show begins.

What ensues is a dazzling piece of theatre in which a boy is apprenticed to learn the bookbinding trade, encountering eerie mysteries, making a terrible mistake and being magically transported into a very special book to undo his error. Using simple but highly effective visual theatre and puppetry the story is brought to life with pop-up, object theatre, shadow puppetry, and no other lighting but the local sources on stage.

The power of this show lies in the strength of the story and storytelling, reminiscent of the work of Neil Gaiman, combined with simple but highly effective – and appropriate – effects. The pop-up book creates images. Books, paper, paper cut-outs, ink, the horn of the record player, bone knives, lamps and lampshades, and hand shadows all add to the atmosphere and intensity of this performance. There is wit and wordplay as well.

Trick of the Light Theatre have created a powerful, atmospheric and haunting piece of storytelling theatre that will leave anybody who is over seven gripped and spellbound.