Suitcase Show is the latest production from the inventive New Zealand based Trick of the Light theatre company. Previous shows – including their gorgeous The Bookbinder – have seen them create magical worlds in which a single story unfolds. This time around, the magic of the suitcases means that each contains a story in literal miniature, giving fantastical free rein to the company’s creativity. If you’ve seen one of their shows before, your expectations will be sky high. Their storytelling is fabulous but the craft with which they deliver their stories are just as much a part of the fun.

Emerging from the suitcases, we have an entire village, gradually illuminating in the winter sun. We have a tiny train track, complete, of course, with train, encircling a mountain as a bear looms large in the forest. For anyone old enough to remember overhead projectors and the terror of a presentation delivered with the assistance of jumbled acetates, the story of the spaceman will come with an extra frisson. But even when writer and performer Ralph McCubbin Howell is ‘only’ serving up good, old-fashioned hand puppetry, a watch worthy of James Bond and a silvery seductive soundtrack elevate the story of an ordinary romance into something that will clutch at your heart.

The technical wizardry in this show is breathtaking. All the kudos to Howell and Hannah Smith for pulling off the myriad of tiny props, miniscule set changes and sound cues without appearing to break a sweat. There’s humour enough in here to entertain the most restless of children and magic enough for people of all ages. And there’s a bit of a nod to the mess the world outside the suitcases is in, as the seas continue to rise and increasing numbers of people are forced to leave their homes in search of drier shores.

If anything, there may be a few too many ideas in here, jostling for air across the individual suitcase stories though the overarching narrative and the payoff are plenty strong enough to knit the disparate lives into a satisfying whole. But if all you’re after is a masterclass in puppetry, animation and all the fancy tricks that technology make possible, you’re in for a total treat.

Suitcase Show is at Summerhall – Old Lab until Sun 25 Aug 2024 (except Mon 12 & 19) at 14:40