LITTLE ANGEL THEATRE MARKS ITS 65TH YEAR WITH NEW MARIONETTE SHOW, EXHIBITION & PUBLICATION RUNNING
22nd AUGUST – 6th SEPTEMBER.
To celebrate 65 years, Little Angel Theatre will open its historic marionette collection to the public for the first time in a generation for Marionettes: An Exhibition Celebrating String Puppets running from 22 August – 6 September at Little Angel Workshop. Tickets are free and can be booked here
Bringing together historic and newly made marionettes, the exhibition showcases work by leading British makers across six decades, from Little Angel Theatre founders John and Lyndie Wright to a new generation of artists.
The exhibition is part of 600 Years on Strings, Little Angel’s anniversary programme celebrating and safeguarding the craft of marionette-making which includes the world premiere of a new marionette production The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the restoration of Little Angel’s historic marionette bridge and new marionette making and performance training ushering in a new era for the craft.
Launching alongside is the new Little Angel publication Marionette: A DIY Guide to Make Your Own 9-String Puppet, a beginner’s guide to inspire and equip the next generation of marionette makers, hobby artists, and puppetry fans.
Little Angel Theatre are delighted to announce a new free exhibition, Marionettes: An Exhibition Celebrating String Puppets, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, running from 22 August – 6 September at the new Little Angel Workshop as part of the theatre’s 65th anniversary celebrations. The exhibition will showcase marionettes made across six decades, including work by Little Angel Theatre founders John and Lyndie Wright, celebrated puppeteer Stephen Mottram, and a new wave of makers trained through LAT’s own carving courses. It will take place in the Little Angel Workshop on Cross Street where a new generation of makers are learning the endangered craft of marionette making. Tickets are free but should be booked in advance here.
The exhibition is part of 600 Years on Strings which marks Little Angel Theatre’s 65th birthday. Previously announced highlights of the celebrations include the restoration of Little Angel’s historic marionette bridge, built in 1961 and one of only a handful in the world still capable of authentic long-string performance, and training for a new generation of makers and puppeteers in a craft with almost no formal training route anywhere in the UK.
The anniversary celebrations culminate in the world premiere of a new marionette production The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, written, directed, and designed by Little Angel Associate Director Oliver Hymans, premiering at Little Angel’s Puppet Festival from 22 – 30 August 2026 (ages 6+). This charming tale about imagination, responsibility and handling even a little magic with care, inspired by Goethe’s classic poem, will make full use of the historic marionette bridge.
Additionally, Little Angel will publish a new book this summer, Marionette: A DIY Guide To Make Your Own 9-String Puppet, celebrating the art of marionette making. The guide is an entry point for beginners interested in learning the craft, walking them through the basics of making their first marionette, and featuring essays and short biographies of influential marionette makers shaping the craft in the UK today.
A 600-year tradition
In 1662, Samuel Pepys watched a marionette Punch and Judy show in Covent Garden and wrote about it in his diary, one of the earliest records of a British tradition that runs, unbroken, through fairground booths and Victorian theatres to Muffin the Mule and Gerry Anderson’s Supermarionation, all the way to a converted temperance hall in Islington, where John Wright founded Little Angel Theatre in 1961 and gave marionette puppetry a permanent home in the UK for the first time.
Today, that thread is close to breaking. Marionette-making is listed on the Heritage Crafts Red List of Endangered Crafts. Unlike most puppetry disciplines, it has no college course, no apprenticeship scheme and no formal route into the craft - only the slow, hands-on transmission of knowledge from one maker to the next.
Little Angel Theatre’s Associate Director, Oliver Hymans, has spent the past 5 years working to change that: training under some of the UK’s last remaining masters, helping lead the campaign for the craft’s Red List listing, and teaching more than twenty new makers through Little Angel’s own courses since 2024.
Oliver Hymans, Associate Director, Little Angel Theatre said: “Endangered crafts survive because people choose to practise them, teach them and pass them on. If this exhibition helps even a handful of people discover the same fascination I felt standing backstage at the Little Angel Theatre all those years ago, looking up at those silent figures hanging patiently above me, then perhaps we have helped ensure that marionettes will continue to dance for generations yet to come.”
Marionettes: An Exhibition Celebrating String Puppets
Little Angel Workshop, Cross Street, N1 2BB
Tickets are free but please book in advance here:
Fuelling the imagination through the magic and wonder of puppetry, we produce ground breaking, innovative shows for children and their families at our venues and on tour. We also welcome puppetry companies from around the UK and overseas to our annual Children’s Puppetry Festival. Our intimate spaces offer the ideal first experience of live performance for the very young and a home for bold, thought-provoking work for older children, helping to nurture a lifelong love of theatre.
Alongside our productions, we deliver imaginative education and participatory activities in our venues, schools and community settings, as well as a programme of online shows and digital content available for those who can’t travel to our venues. We have used puppetry to create and share inspiring stories since opening our doors in 1961; igniting the imaginations of the youngest minds, and supporting puppetry artists at all stages of their careers. The theatre’s success has been built upon a spirit of artistic innovation and high quality production values. We are committed to pushing the boundaries of what puppetry can be, whilst preserving its heritage.
Meet some of the makers
In 1961, a South African-trained puppeteer named John Wright walked into a bombed-out temperance hall in Islington and saw a theatre. Inspired by the legendary Italian marionette company Piccoli, he’d spent the 1940s touring Europe and Africa with his own troupe before settling in London to build something permanent. He was awarded an MBE in 1977 for a lifetime spent carving and performing marionettes.
One of Britain’s most singular puppet theatre-makers, Stephen Mottram trained with the Hungarian State Puppet Theatre before developing solo work exploring the eerie space between music, movement and machine. His piece The Seed Carriers — a nightmarish, Bosch-inspired vision of marionettes farming and harvesting each other — won three international awards.
One of the small number of people in the UK still making and performing marionettes professionally, Sarah Vigars combines traditional woodcarving with contemporary design. Her touring show Flying with Strings, developed with Arts Council England support, follows a cast of birds crafted with such delicacy that they won the President’s Prize at MAKE Southwest’s national exhibition.
A third-generation marionettist, Stan Middleton is the current custodian of the Puppet Theatre Barge, founded by his grandparents in 1982. He co-founded the award-winning String Theatre, lent his puppeteering skills to Muppets Most Wanted, and was one of the master craftspeople who trained Oliver Hymans.
Little Angel Theatre’s Associate Director has spent the past 5 years turning a personal fascination with marionettes into a national campaign. A QEST scholar and Homo Faber Fellow, he studied under some of the UK’s last remaining masters and helped lead the successful push to have marionette-making added to the Heritage Crafts Red List of Endangered Crafts. He has since taught the technique to more than twenty new makers through LAT’s carving courses, presented it at the V&A during London Craft Week, and featured on the BBC’s Repair Shop on the Road.
Marionette puppetry is listed on the Heritage Crafts Red List of Endangered Crafts.
This project is supported using public funding by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to money raised by National Lottery players.
About The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Our vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future. That’s why as the largest funder for the UK’s heritage we are dedicated to supporting projects that connect people and communities to heritage, as set out in our strategic plan, Heritage 2033. Heritage can be anything from the past that people value and want to pass
on to future generations. We believe in the power of heritage to ignite the imagination, offer joy and inspiration, and to build pride in place and connection to the past.
Over the next 10 years, we aim to invest £3.6billion raised for good causes by National Lottery players to make a decisive difference for people, places and communities.
heritagefund.org.uk