During the past few years, puppet shows have taught the theater industry two important lessons: They can be magically innovative like Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique, and commercially viable like Tony-Award-winning Avenue Q. Three, a trio of hauntingly morbid puppet fairy tales aimed at adults, won't ever make the leap to Broadway. However, at times it recalls the rapturous beauty of Twist's work. The first tale, A Horse Named Sadness about an evil circus owner on a killing spree, is an allegory of sorts told via stick puppets and cardboard cutout word balloons. The second and most captivating segment is an interpretation of Lewis Carroll's The Walrus and the Carpenter. Intricate shadow puppets act out the massacre of innocent oysters to a prerecorded dramatic reading of the poem. The finale, Pest Control, looks like a Trent Reznor video: It's chock-full of vintage porcelain dolls, Victorian-era photos and creepy insects, but what it all means remains a mystery.— Raven Snook

• Where: The Studio at Cherry Lane Theatre
• When: Fri, Aug 13 at 5 p.m.; Tue, Aug 17 at 11:15 p.m.; Thu, Aug 18 at 3 p.m.; Fri, Aug 20 at 7:15 p.m.; Wed, Aug 25 at 5:45 p.m.