The Guardian 28 May 2025

If you think Peter Pan had problems with his shadow, you should see what Tangram Kollektiv have to contend with. In the German-French company’s clever and understated Shades of Shadows, performers Sarah Chaudon and Clara Palau y Herrero find themselves in a landscape where shadows refuse to behave.

Staged in the Festival theatre studio, it starts out looking like a standard-issue piece of shadow puppetry as the two performers project the silhouette of a Dr Seuss-like city on to a screen. They focus in on a room in one of the buildings where a couple drink at a table, lit by an Anglepoise lamp. Mimicking this image, carefully positioning themselves around the table, mugs in hand, they upturn the normal order of things: the shadow comes first, real life second. [READ MORE]

By Mark Fisher

MARK FISHER is a freelance theatre critic and feature writer based in Edinburgh and has written about theatre in Scotland since the late-1980s. He is a theatre critic for The Guardian, a former editor of The List magazine and a frequent contributor to the Scotsman and other publications. He is the co-editor of the play anthology Made in Scotland (1995), and the author of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide (2012) and How to Write About Theatre (2015) – all Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. He is also the editor of The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls and What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book (both Mark Fisher Ltd).