Showing @ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh until Mon 13 May

Even before actress-director Shona Reppe enters the stage, the school class in the audience applauds enthusiastically and she will not disappoint them. True to the spirit of the Imaginate festival, The Curious Scrapbook of Josephine Bean is high-quality children’s theatre that expands its magic to mature viewers too. In 2012 it was endowed with a Theatre Award UK for best show for children. This one-woman-show introduces those present to the wondrous discipline of scrapology, the science of found things and preserved memories.

Reppe, clad in a white lab coat as a doctor of scrapology, invites the audience to join her in examining a mysterious Victorian scrapbook. Equipped with brush, magnifying glass and something that can only be described as a book stethoscope, she sets out to disclose the volume’s secrets. As she turns the leaves, holding not only photographs but also dried seaweed, meals for two and even a ballet performance, the life of the owner slowly takes shape. But what is revealed seems almost too curious to be true.

Evocative sound effects seem to emanate from the pages, lighting turns a piece of paper into a snowy landscape and projections allow the audience an intimate look into the world of the tome. Although it’s Reppe’s field of expertise, puppetry is kept to a minimum as one of many sleights of hand; simple but resourceful, a chip fork and an ice cream stick are transformed into an amorous Victorian couple. Although some of the jokes are clearly targeted at children others are only picked up by adults, so everyone’s humour is catered for. Although the show is not strictly participatory, the audience is addressed directly and as performer and spectators set out together to discover the secret of Josephine Bean, a rare sense of community forms. New clues wait with every sheet turned and the scrapologist’s enthusiasm is transferred onto the audience, The Curious Scrapbook of Josephine Bean is above all a celebration of curiosity.