As the two performers behind Box Tale Soup took their bows after Sunday afternoon’s show, Noel Byrne apologised for a few errors in the soundtrack.

If the performers had felt any frustration during the show it certainly wasn’t obvious from the audience – in fact it would be hard to imagine where things had gone wrong.

Based solely around two actors, a cast of homemade puppets and a large trunk of cardboard props, Box Tale Soup faithfully bring Austen’s mischievous attack on the gothic romance to life.

The only two human characters are Antonia Christophers as fresh-faced heroine Catherine Morland, and Byrne as the witty Mr Tilney, with both actors operating and voicing the rest of the cardboard-faced cast with an amazing fluidity, a few times even swapping characters mid-scene.

Through light physical touches and carefully selected dialogue they convey Austen’s world of manners and distil the essence of her most loved comic creations, from the gown-obsessed Mrs Allen to the obnoxious John Thorpe.

One doesn’t have to be an Austen fan to appreciate the humour as Morland’s imagination runs away with her, and the frustration and hurt when obstacles block her way to happiness.