Jackanory on dodgy mushrooms

The Terrible Infants is a beautifully realised slice of vaudevillian puppet theatre and crawls with characters that could have escaped from Lewis Carroll's waste paper basket.

The woeful demise of compulsive liar Tilly (Nichole Lewis) periodically drags numerous other lamentable misfits into a woe-strewn, Struwwelpeter-esque revue of twisted cautionary tales.

It's like giving your inner child an enormous sack of sweets and a cuff round the ear: ever-ballooning glutton Tum and vanity-stricken rag doll Linea would each have Tim Burton writhing with glee, while the tale of terminally anonymous Thingummyboy quivers with pathos.

Wildly lyrical, darkly camp and musically adept, performing company Les Enfants Terribles also boasts a gorgeously lo-fi eye for detail.

Moments of slapstick are sharply choreographed and delicate songs and artfully inventive props are blended with witty, articulate narration.

Smashing the fourth wall to smithereens, this Jackanory on dodgy mushrooms proves just how good fringe theatre can be.

Until Aug 27 (not Mon), Pleasance Courtyard, 2.40pm, £6 to £9.

The Terrible Infants
Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Fringe