Thaddeus Phillips turns vintage toys into live cinema at Edinburgh Fringe

An American theatre-maker is using hidden cameras and a collection of vintage mechanical toys to build a globe-trotting live movie on a Summerhall stage. The show is Around the World in 80 Toys, and it runs at the Edinburgh Fringe venue from 6 to 31 August 2026.

Thaddeus Phillips is the creator and performer. He splices together Jules Verne's 1873 adventure novel with the real life of Georges Méliès, the cinema pioneer behind A Trip to the Moon (1902) who ended up running a toy shop in Paris. The concept: hidden cameras turn small props into big-screen images in real time, blending live performance with what Phillips calls micro-cinema — miniature film sequences created live in front of the audience. WhatsOnStage

The production is co-created and directed by Colombian director Tatiana Mallarino, with magic and illusions by a New York-based creator. It was developed for a world premiere at Buntport Theater in Denver before travelling to Edinburgh, according to an announcement in June 2026. BroadwayWorld

The Stage, reviewing the show on 10 August, described it as a charming version of Verne's story told with vintage mechanical toys. The Stage

WhatsOnStage, reviewing three days later on 13 August, took a longer look and found the technique not entirely seamless. Autofocus problems render some live close-ups blurry or indistinct, the review noted. The narrative momentum also wanes once the journey reaches India. And because the show draws on a collection of vintage toys, some cultural portrayals lean on stereotyping of the kind embedded in the objects themselves — a tension the production acknowledges rather than resolves. WhatsOnStage

For Fringe-goers, the draw is clear enough: a single performer conjuring a Victorian adventure and the history of early cinema from a table of mechanical toys and a set of cameras. Whether the gimmick sustains itself across the full run is the question the reviews begin to answer in different ways. Summerhall, a former veterinary school turned arts venue, hosts the show as part of its 2026 Fringe programme. Summerhall

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the open-access arts festival that fills hundreds of venues across the city every August, runs through the Bank Holiday weekend. Summerhall is one of its largest curated venues, programmed year-round but at its busiest during the Fringe.