The bike-filled studio we know, sweat in and love was transformed yesterday by lots of little people. Some of them were standard-model humans, filled with the usual blood and guts, but others had lots more cotton wool. The latter treated us ‘A Laddie and His Wonderful Lamp’. This puppet show was basically the familiar story of Aladdin and the lamp, but set in Edinburgh! Characters included A Laddie, his younger brother, Abonahzer, Princess Street, Mrs MacRamsbottom, Genie the lamp, and, of course, Stinky the dog.

Just in case you don’t know the story, Abonahzer is a wicked megalomanic with a desire to rule the world. But to do this, he needs the power of a lamp which is safely kept in the dungeons of Edinburgh Castle. We then meet Princes Street and A Laddie, who Abonahzer inveigles to retrieve the lamp.

After Mrs Ramsbottom spends a while lambasting her name, much to the audience’s delight (we never grow up, do we?), A Laddie duly finds the map but refuses to hand it over until Abonahzer helps him climb out of the dungeon. In a fit of pique, Abonahzer slams the door on him. But all is not lost – the lamp has a genie who grants A Laddie some wishes. A Laddie also finds his long-lost younger brother in the dungeons – a search he’d postponed first to chat up Princess Street and then to help Abonahzer.

The genie helps A Laddie and his brother escape from the castle, Abonahzer gets his come-uppance and A Laddie and Princess Street walk off hand in hand.

An uplifting story for Christmas, followed by a parade of characters who hadn’t had staring roles but who needed to be seen. All with an audio-visual accompaniment, songs that demanded audience participation and a whole lot of jokes and fun! I know the audience enjoyed it, especially the wee (human) lad who was bouncing in the wings to the music. You might see (if I can upload the jPhone video) that I was bouncing too. Well done to the puppeteers for staging this show and then putting the Lifescycle studio back to normal for the following morning’s Saturday Surge and Saturday Shake-up.