Ronnie Burkett is a man on a mission - to shake off puppetrys childish reputation and prove just how powerful and emotive an art form it can be.

The talented Canadian has wowed theatre-goers at previous Brighton festivals and returns this year with another dose of his provocative adult marionette show.

A play which is tender, erotic and often funny, Provenance plumbs the depths of human experience. The scenes sweep across continents and generations as we follow eccentric art historian Pity Beanes attempts to uncover the provenance of a mysterious painting.

Her searches take her further than she can have imagined, and we drift from jazz-age Paris to interwar Vienna, ending up in a Canadian high school locker room.

The cast of finelycrafted and beautifully clothed puppets are so delicately manipulated by Burkett they show all the nuanced mannerisms of human actors and the audience is drawn into their dark and slightly dirty world.

This time around Burkett is doing something he has never done before - donning one of his own masks to take to the stage in a brief cameo.

Jane McMorrow, director of the Brighton Festival and the woman responsible for bringing Burkett back to the city, said Provenance is one of his best plays yet.

She said: Its a piece very much in his style so fans of his previous shows wont be disappointed. He makes all the puppets himself and this show has been crafted with the same kind of meticulous attention to detail.

In the past, people have stayed on at the end just to look at the puppets, and they will be even more overwhelmed this year.

Burkett formed his Theatre of Marionettes in 1986, almost single-handedly rescuing puppetry from its terminal decline with his quest to break the historic art form out of its narrowing niche.

He premiered with the wild musical Fools Edge, moving on to produce the melodramatic operetta Virtue Falls and The Punch Club, a satirical examination of the old Punch and Judy shows.

Previous Brighton Festival shows, Old Friends (2002) and Street of Blood (2003), were performed to sold-out crowds.

Show starts 7.30pm. £18, £12.50.