The Return of the Scottish Falcetto Sock Puppet Theatre

Watching a man's hand inside a sock pretend to play a guitar which he calls "Vicky the technician" is quite surreal. That he is singing a song called 'I'm a Sock' with his "co-star"—another hand with a very similar sock on it—does not make it any easier to deal with.

Flushed from last year's success, but a little bitter that they didn't receive the work to match the accolades, The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre returns with a show supposedly designed to impress visiting TV execs. Thus we get socks doing musical numbers, historical reenactments and, of course, Shakespeare.

Although only differentiated by a kilt made from a beer can and a couple of notes between their high-pitched voices, the two are successfully characterised in the vein of the great comedy partnerships.

What makes this show so good is that the duo's material would be funny even if presented conventionally. When elivered by two socks, it becomes genius.

Drawn out to and fro rhyming occasionally hinders the show, though it also produces some of it's best moments, and there are also the inevitable technical difficulties caused by handling props with a sock on each hand.

Yet there is something hugely impressive about pulling off a hilarious comedy act with just your hands. The socks' crackling chemistry is so believable that the emergence of their operator is actually quite disconcerting. This year it seems certain that the two stars of this very strange delight are destined for greatness, and the guy providing the hands might just have a career ahead of him too.