Tiny Planet

Overview

Tiny Planet is Half a String’s puppet show about a world no bigger than a house — small enough to walk around in a few minutes, and still the centre of its own galaxy. An intergalactic space baker crash-lands on it and starts to uncover what the place is made of. The show is built from puppetry, live camera projection, and folk songs played against big 90s synth. It comes from the company behind Breathe, and arrived in Edinburgh a Fringe Theatre Award winner with nine nominations.

What we love about it:

It shrinks a whole world down to something a child could hold, and then lets smoke start pouring out of it. That’s the trick, and it’s a good one — a planet you can see all of at once is a planet whose damage you can also see all of at once. The show never explains this. The planet is a character rather than a lesson, and the argument is left where it belongs, in the audience’s hands on the way out.

Who is it for?

Made for ages 5 and up, and genuinely built for adults to sit through as well — the design and the music do a lot of work that younger audiences won’t consciously notice and older ones will. Relaxed performances on 11 and 18 August.