Saragossa Manuscript

King of Hearts, Norwich (Norfolk and Norwich Festival)

Spanish culture has had more than a look-in during this year's festival, and it's good to take stock of some common themes.

In Teatro de los Sentidos, we have an upside down world in which we are forced to find our way through a labyrinth in the dark. It's charming, moving, funny, but above all, a puzzle.

So, it's interesting to find that this group of tales set in Spain is, again, a mind teaser.

The Saragossa Manuscript is apparently a Decameronesque tale of a

Walloon officer travelling across Spain during the Peninsular war.

As he journeys from one Inn to another, he gets caught up in the yarns of so many different characters that keeping track of it all becomes bewildering.

It's a virtuoso storytelling feat on the part of Michael Dacre which keeps the mind gently boggling.

All the more so, since these shenanigans turn out to be no more than a blinder to the real and secret subject involving cabalistic traditions and the Gothic imagery of Tarot.

Brain bending fun.