Showing @ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Mon 03 Feb only @ 19:30

Kicking off Manipulate 2014 is a gorgeous cross-collaboration between companies from the Netherlands, Norway and Slovenia which transports us to mythological Greece. Dudapaiva Company, Riksteatret/Kilden Teater and Lutkovno gledališče Ljubljana indulge us with a dark carnival of comic characters – from the woefully unloved Persephone to the lustful Hades – who may yet rescue modern Greece from its economic turmoil. Have we lost sight of the importance of spirituality and myths? Possibly, but in reality, these Gods are as fraught with insecurity and incompetence as their mortal underlings.

Our host for the evening is Cupid, who, with a flourish of the wrist, introduces us to tonight’s players. Mart Muurisepp, Ilija Surla and Esther Natzijl writhe alongside their puppet counterparts who emerge from ‘rock’ structures, blending dance, spiralling visual effects, music and puppetry into a refreshing multidisciplinary experience. It is at times joyously surreal, flirting with danger and loss along the way, and exposes the high ideals that we hold Gods to: the purest love, most vengeful anger and deepest despair. This can be an equally magical and menacing journey, but doesn’t quite achieve the type of new theatrical language that companies such as Editta Braun have pioneered. Instead, Bestiaires uses object theatre to pose the important, but familiar, question of whether we have lost meaning in a tumultuous contemporary landscape.