Little Angel Theatre

This review is from 2013. ‘We’re going on a bear hunt, we’re going to catch a big one, what a beautiful day, we’re not scared.’ Michael Rosen’s rhythmic tale about a family which goes looking for bears is addictively popular with tots. And it's very nicely adapted here by a sweet-throated troupe of Little Angel puppeteers, in whose hands it’s become a charming, slightly alarming Saturday dad disaster story with additional folk songs. Converting a board book to a 45-minute show is often a stretch, but this pre-school classic can take the strain. Each onomatopeic obstacle that our plucky heroes have to surmount (such as swishy swashy grass) converts ingeniously to a nifty scene and set. And the whittled wooden puppets are cute, perfectly tuned to Helen Oxenbury's wistful original illustrations, and expertly handled, particularly the swimming baby and the licking dog. The energy drops in some scenes, especially when the makers opt for spooky ‘mild peril’, as DVD-regulators like to call it, and lose the adventurous enthusiasm in that rocking rhythm which drives the story forwards. And I could have wished that the helter skelter finale, where they do everything backwards, had been more hectic. But, as always at this treasured London venue, the production values are superb – if you have a 3-6-year old and can get them to Islington conveniently, you couldn’t wish for a sweeter introduction to theatre.

Me... is back at Little Angel Theatre for Christmas 2025. This review is from its 2016 premiere. Islington puppet theatre the Little Angel is nothing less than an icon of north London childhood. Tucked away down a picturesque little alley where everything seems magically smaller than life, this place has been beguiling children with crowd-pleasing yet surprisingly avant-garde puppet shows since 1961. Its craft is precise, its tone is well-judged, and its shows are reliably charming, especially at Christmas. This year’s show for two-to-six-year olds, ‘Me…’, is a charmfest that’s unlikely to upset even the most lily-livered pre-schooler. Featuring a cute bundle of day-old penguin fluff and an icy antarctic environment shaped like a half pipe, it is simple, short and sweet. In a series of gymnastic scenes, baby penguin discovers that the sea is deep, the world is large, and she is small. And that’s about the size of it. A bunch of bloodthirsty six-year-olds complained about the lack of a baddie killer whale to amp up the drama. And they had a point: there’s not a lot of dramatic tension or much of a storyline. But it’s a lovely safe, empathetic first show for a little one. And the world that’s created by simple tactile scenery and deft puppetry is, as usual, beautifully crafted. The Little Angel is small, but its impact is big.