Norwegian theatre director Yngvild Aspeli is bringing her French-Norwegian company Plexus Polaire's puppet production Dracula: Lucy's Dream to the Edinburgh fringe this summer, in a deeply unsettling staging she insists is unsuitable for young children. The show reflects the growing recognition of puppetry as a serious art form for adult audiences, blending lifesized, waxen puppets with live actors so that the two become almost indistinguishable, aided by Emilie Nguyen's spectral lighting.

Aspeli's retelling draws on the 1901 Icelandic translation Powers of Darkness, which took liberties with Bram Stoker's original, and places Lucy — Mina's ill-fated friend — at its heart, shifting the female character out of the victim role to create a "sisterly counterforce" to the story's patriarchal men of science. The production explores themes of manipulation, trauma and psychological abuse, echoing the company's name (drawn from the "solar plexus" where emotion sits, and "polarity" between sanity and madness). Founded in 2008, Plexus Polaire uses light, anatomically correct puppets inspired by the Japanese bunraku tradition, and will perform in a 1,200-capacity venue at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, with sound — including piercing howls and a song titled The Children of the Night — playing a central role.