The most thought-through and tightly-choreographed rendering of a fever dream you will ever see, Dorothy James and Andy Manjuck’s “Critics’ Pick” puppet show is in a class all of its own. Part slapstick comedy, part surreal jaunt, and part commentary on the passing of time, it’s silly. Unapologetically so. But it is also charming, clever, and incredibly economical: just three puppeteers bring to life not only the hapless, lonely character of Bill, but a myriad of his imaginary friends, filling the stage with mayhem and seemingly dozens of hyperactive entities whose emotions and intent change on a whim.

It can, at times, feel like watching an over-eager improv session, but that’s all part of the appeal – it’s a testament to what can be created when several very talented people shut themselves in a room and ask, “Yes, and?”. And so we end up with a hodgepodge of vignettes that really shouldn’t work in sequence, but somehow do.

Because of this scattergun approach, there really will be something for everyone in the show’s one-hour run time, whether it’s the opening clowning sequence (with heavy undertones of Fawlty Towers), the strangely beautiful balloon ballet, or the exquisitely portrayed miniature puppetry sequence.

The music (Eamon Fogarty) has been specially written for the show, and only adds to the sense of being detached from reality. The puppets are simple but iconic. It’s a show where the whole really is exactly equal to the sum of its parts, but in this case that’s no bad thing.

Playing 8:35pm nightly at Underbelly Cowgate, 3 – 27 August 2023.