LITTLE ANGEL THEATRE

When a little girl cuts out a string of paper dolls she takes them by the hand and together they go on a fantastical adventure whirling through their home and garden. Ticky, Tacky, Jackie the Backie, Jim with two noses and Jo with the bow fly through time and tear across worlds of fun and excitement.

They face the Jurassic clutches of a toy dinosaur and the snapping jaws of the oven-glove crocodile, and then a very real boy with very real scissors threatens to snip their adventure short…

Can children join in?

This isn’t an interactive style of show, but we welcome vocal responses from young audiences. The audience stay in their seats while watching the show.

Is there anything that might be scary or upsetting?

As in the book, the loss of the little girl’s beloved paper dolls is central to the story. When this happens, her brother finds the dolls in the garden and cuts them to pieces while she is indoors. He makes a few snips with the scissors and small pieces of paper are thrown around the stage. The little girl is very upset when she sees what has happened, and is comforted by her mother. We then see how the paper dolls live on in her memory along with other loved things and people (‘a kind granny’) and how when she grows up she makes more paper dolls with her own child.

Earlier in the story, when the little girl is playing with the paper dolls, they have adventures where they are chased by a toy dinosaur, a tiger (a slipper / puppet) and a crocodile (an oven glove / puppet). These are playful scenes and the paper dolls always escape.

Should I bring a child under three?

All ages are welcome at our shows and age ranges can only be a rough guide, but please bear in mind that The Paper Dolls was not specially designed for under-threes. The show contains a lot of extra dialogue that is not in the book. A show aimed at two-year olds would have some differences – those shows are carefully made to hold their attention for the duration, and not to be unsettling for