Theatre: A darkly comic, uncanny tale of the digital age from the makers of The Bookbinder

Troll, written and performed by Ralph McCubbin Howell, combines Nordic folklore with internet myth. Photo / Supplied

After a sell-out run of The Road That Wasn't There at The Meteor last year, award-winning Wellington company Trick of the Light Theatre are back with Tröll - a lo-fi Wi-Fi fable in the vein of Stranger Things.

Combining Nordic folklore with internet myth through puppets, projection and shadow-play, this darkly comic tale of the dial-up age is in Hamilton from October 15 to 17.

It's 1998. Otto is 12 but online he's 13 and he's pretty sure he gets away with it. He lives in an old wooden two-storey house with his mum, dad and sister, a chain-smoking Icelandic granny, and an ancient malevolent troll that's living in the wall ...

Trick of the Light are no strangers to inventively staged shows. The Bookbinder (Children's Theatre Award, Fringe World 2015) was performed around a handcrafted pop-up book and entirely lit by lamps onstage, while The Road That Wasn't There (Children's Theatre Award, Fringe World 2016) wove a dark fairytale through shadow-play and live music.

With Tröll the company wanted to bring the innovative design and intricate narrative of those works into the contemporary world, with staging that transforms the devices the surround us every day: smartphones become light sources, keyboards become skyscrapers, and monsters creep out from the cables.

First staged at the foot of a staircase in a flat in Aro Valley to an audience of only 12 people, the show has gone on to win awards at Fringe World in Perth and the Edinburgh Fringe.

The company spent lockdown developing two new works and performing one live over Zoom, but are thrilled to be back on the road and sharing their work with real life audiences again.

The season in Hamilton forms part of a wider tour which takes in Gisborne, Wairarapa, and Taranaki.

For adults and children 10+. Directed by Charlotte Bradley and Hannah Smith.

Designed/operated by Hannah Smith. Written/performed by Ralph McCubbin Howell. Sound Design and composition by Tane Upjohn-Beatson. Projection design by Charley Draper.

• The Meteor, Hamilton, October 15 to 17, 7pm Thu/Fri, 6pm Sat, 55 mins. Tickets $15 to $25 at www.themeteor.co.nz