Best of Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2012

• A Celebration of UK performance in China

Touring Beijing (NCPA), Shanghai, Guangzhou and Changsha

1. The Animals and Children Took to the Streets by 1927

Founded by performance poet Suzanne Andrade and animator Paul Barritt, 1927 began life on the outskirts of the cabaret scene. The company's first show, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, was a hit in Edinburgh in 2007 and toured widely from New York to Sri Lanka. 1927 is best known for its playful mix of live performance and projected animation. With darkly comic storytelling, the company explores contemporary issues inspired by the macabre nature of fairy stories, silent films and Edwardian illustration.

1927's second production The Animals and Children took to the Streets tells the story of Agnes Eaves and her daughter who live in Bayou Mansions, a decrepit tenement block with a sinister air. The imaginary setting emphasises the timeless nature of its themes, as the characters navigate government oppression and the paranoia of inner-city life. Visually inventive and filled with live music and song, this show doesn't rely on the English language and is suitable for a wide age range.

2. The Table by Blind Summit  

Puppet innovators Blind Summit Theatre present a brand new adult puppetry show - about a puppet stuck on a table. ‘Moses’ invites you to visit the place where he lives - “The Table”. He tells the story of how he got there, of the people who visit him and those who have left him. Join Moses in this poignant performance as he begins to consider his life, his table and what lies beyond. . .Told with few words, beautiful puppets and Blind Summit’s trademark performing style this story combines the dark humour of Beckett and the flat-pack technology of Ikea.

The company that is perhaps best known for creating the puppetry in Anthony Minghella’s award winning Madam Butterfly, Simon McBurney’s A Dog’s Heart, Complicite’s Shunkin, as well as their own genre-breaking productions including 1984 at BAC, return to their Low Life roots to make a sweaty, intense, beautiful, visually compelling show.

3. Vanishing Horizon by Idle Motion

Idle Motion is a young physical theatre company currently working as Artists in Residence at Oxford Playhouse. Working collaboratively, they devise their performances from scratch using workshops, play and improvisation to create work which is highly visual, creating bold images on stage with an innovative use of props and movement. Strong narratives and a great talent for storytelling result in rounded and dynamic pieces of theatre. Nominated by Total Theatre Awards as Best Emerging Company 2009 for their production Borges and I, the company returns to the 2011 Fringe with The Vanishing Horizon, their sell-out show from 2010.

The Vanishing Horizon brings to life the history of the female pioneers of aviation and their new found freedom alongside the moving modern-day account of a young woman’s travels to discover the story of her estranged grandmother who had fled the constraints of her life in post-war Britain to settle in South Africa. Using devised physical theatre and inventive staging created from battered suitcases, puppets, maps and paper airplanes, the work creates a powerful and evocative experience for anyone who has ever travelled. It is a charming and inventive show which will appeal to audiences of all ages for its storytelling and witty use of creative techniques.