Elephant, Edinburgh Festival Theatre

These days, the elephant is something of a TV celeb - closely observed in programmes about its own life in the wild but also, in a series about tigers, acting as a discreet "camera-spy" while going about the daily business of visiting water-holes. Clearly, these distinctive, enigmatic creatures exert an appropriately massive pull on our curiosity and our imagination, so when life-size elephants (including a very cute baby) drift through the mists in this Dodgy Clutch production, there's a gasp of surprised delight from adults and children alike. Yes, these body-puppets are beautifully and persuasively crafted; however, it's the way the performers move that really captures the elephants' solemn, swaying dignity, makes the mother and baby relationship so tenderly affecting and the act of unwarranted slaughter so heart-stoppingly appalling.