You start out questioning how three mute men and a marionette can possibly engage you for an hour and 15 minutes, and leave wondering why many dramatists bother with words at all.

German company Familie Floz are the forerunners in silent, mask-based theatre. But I was still surprised by the completeness of the emotional universe they create here, its humanity gently but sharply observed.

Teatro Delusio is a funny, poignant and delightfully inventive take on the world of "backstage".

A grand and passionate production is taking place in real-time. But we see only a series of flats receding towards their stage, while ours is decked out in a chaos of lights, cables and left-over props.

This is home to three stalwart stage technicians, one handy and cock-sure, one inept and bookish, and their grouchy, unflappable gaffer.

We also meet proud opera singers preparing to make their entrances, ageing orchestra members who have lost their way, cleaners, costumiers and a pompous director replete with camel coat, silk scarf and a perpetual look of arrogant disdain.

Their fraught interactions, intuited through subtle tilts of the masks and simple yet skilful gestures, are totally believable.

At times there is a hilarious discrepancy between the pomp and ceremony of the overheard production and the petty slapstick or drab functionality to which we bear witness.

At others its melodramatic classical music comes to underscore the techs' own dramas.

With Familie Floz, much of the enjoyment lies in the joy of recognition. But there is also a rogue spirit at play here, and I don't just mean the childlike ghost whose "accident" with the electrics provides the imaginative spark for the whole show.

As the three techs begin to play out their own private fantasies, the play we are watching peels away from the production they are working on, and the narrative becomes far-fetched and episodic. So we get a whirlwind affair, an ultraimpressive sword fight, and a bizarre scene in which the gaffer puts his back out and winds up giving birth to little puppet twins.

This at times befuddling shift stops your brain from cosying down. But Teatro Delusio is overall a rather sentimental, soothing experience.

Still wondering whether to take your kids? There's a little furry mammal in it too.