Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Places I Go from My Bed
Katherine McGerr and Erica Murphy / Syracuse University
Genre: Children's Theatre, Puppetry
Venue: TheSpaceUK
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
An original work of object theatre conceived for young audience members with illnesses and disabilities. Ordinary objects from a child’s hospital room are transformed into fantastical adventures in this original work created especially for young audiences with specific mobility or sensory needs, but enjoyable to all. Part performance, part (optional) hands-on interaction.
Review
We are welcomed by Katherine McGerr and Erica Murphy who devised and perform Places I Go from My Bed. They introduce the puppet, show us some of the items – all ordinary objects a child might see in a hospital room – that they use to tell stories of adventures beyond the walls of the hospital. They are very engaging and encourage the audience (of all ages) to chip in ideas of the sounds we might hear at the doctors, and the items we might see.
The show grew out of Martinez’s own work bedside in children’s wards. Designed by Carmen Martinez, the show transforms a trolley into our small patient’s bed, a screen doing double duty as the world beyond it, and the puppeteers voice their creations entirely through sound rather than words – remarkably effective, and instantly legible to a very young audience. The show is warmly interactive throughout, inviting children to join in with beeps and sound effects, imagining what a hospital stay sounds and feels like. Our puppet, worried at first, is gently reassured by a nurse and persuaded to accept the mask, which by now has become snorkelling gear – and then it’s off, out into outer space.
As sea, land and skyscapes unfold through shadow puppetry – all conjured from ordinary hospital items: clamps, gauze, syringes – she meets a string of strange, wonderful creatures who show her she can travel anywhere through imagination, even from a recovery bed. The puppet handling and shadow puppetry is skilled with delightful moments of detail.
It closes with time for the children to see how the puppets are made and to handle some, themselves, and a lovely sign-off demonstrating just how much can be made from a single sock. Aimed squarely at the very young, I recruited an assistant reviewer for this one: Ozzie, aged three, who declared it very funny, with the rocket and the aeroplane his favourites. An enchanting piece.
