MARIONETTES Exhibition to Open at Little Angel Theatre
The free exhibition brings together historic and newly made string puppets by British makers spanning six decades.
Little Angel Theatre has announced 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.
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.”
Tickets are free but please book in advance.
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