Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Seedheart
Indigo Moon Theatre
Genre: Children's Theatre, Puppetry
Venue: Pleasance Courtyard
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Meet Grey. Our journey begins as Grey finds themself trapped inside a jar, unable to remember why, and wondering how to be free… Watch Grey’s story unfold (literally!) from a single suitcase, on a journey towards a brighter future, with magical pop-ups, puppetry and shadows. SeedHeart tells the important tale of how Earth changed since humans came along, with interactive chaos in the laboratory on the way!
Review
Anna Ingleby from Indigo Moon Theatre presents Seedheart, a delightful story about a character called Grey. Told through puppetry, shadows and pop up objects the story tells how Grey became contained in a jar and what happens – and how does he get out! Ingleby does all the puppetry accompanied by an effective sound track of music and sound effects, that all add to the atmosphere of this story with an environmental element to the storyline.
Directed by Steve Tiplady & Haviel Perdana with original music by Perdana, the visuals and puppets by Perdana and Ingleby are intricate, well designed and the performance flows well. The centrepiece is a suitcase that contains a series of creative set backgrounds for Grey and the other puppets to discover. To each side of the suitcase is large scenery for puppets to sit on or fly around!
Grey is endearing and exceptionally well articulated with sophisticated body, arm and leg movement and is appropriately grey in colour. Grey comes in and out of the story as the journey leading up to being locked in a jar is depicted. At times, the puppetry is reflected in large shadows on the wall depending on the angle of the lighting, which is very effective and provides large imagery that catches everyone’s attention and imagination!
Sound effects such as wind and rain are perfectly coordinated with the visual storytelling of the puppetry to show the challenges that Grey meets on this journey. Grey is an everybody, representing humanity in general in this tale about how the Earth changed since humans came along and caused chaos. The scenes in the story move along with quick – and slick – changes of set, from instant pop up trees to a cityscape and everything else in between. The colour palette of the majority of the show is a stylish white, with grey tones and black to accentuate the topic. However, there is a beautiful reveal near the end that is glorious in design and gives us all hope among the chaos!
The forty five minute show strikes a balance of being compelling to children of the suggested 5+ as well as adults interested in stories told through puppetry and visual storytelling.
If the show were to be developed more or into a short series it would provide a wonderful opportunity to see more of Grey and especially more adventures in the new world Grey bravely had a hand in creating.
Seedheart is an entertaining and meaningful imaginative story told with a variety of puppets, beautiful music and well timed visual storytelling!
