Deep in a basement, an old man sits at his desk surrounded by books. As he thinks, puppet-figures emerge from the top of his desk, through interstices and suddenly yawning openings. The mannekins are of a representative kind, an embodiment of his intellectual wanderings, and are brilliantly evocative of them.

A puppet resembling the librarian is first of the fantasy figures, and a monologue begins. The words speak of breath, animals, the world, absence and silence, of nothing less than the old man's thoughts on creation and its aftermath. One thought connects with the next, the phantom images appear and disappear, the man becomes wholly absorbed in the process his imagination has put in train.

Silence and darkness finally descend on the scene, and the librarian departs. But for some 45 minutes, he has created a compelling illusion which compels the attention, or rather the absorption, of his audience. The play was created by Ezechiel Garcia-Romeu and Francois Tomsu, who are the concealed puppeteers throughout, and is a theatrical miniature to savour.

Jacques Fornier is the actor, a silver-haired man with a golden voice which caresses the words - it is performed in French - and their substance. There are three performances each day - at 1 p.m., 5.30 p.m. and 7 p.m. - of what, despite its brevity, is far more than a Festival filler. Minimal knowledge of French would be useful, but is not mandatory, for this novel experience.