Our history

In 1961 a troupe of enthusiastic puppeteers under the leadership of South African master, John Wright, found a derelict temperance hall in Islington and transformed it into a magical little theatre, specially designed for children and for the presentation of marionette shows. Little Angel Theatre opened on Saturday 24th November, 1961. In 2011 we celebrated our 50th anniversary.

Over the next 30 years, the Little Angel company created and performed over 30 full-scale shows. They toured all over the UK and abroad, absorbed new styles by participating in International puppet festivals (including Europe, USA and the Far East), collaborated with musicians (including Daniel Barenboim and Robert Zeilger) on large-scale productions for the South Bank and Barbican Centres, and provided a constant source of inspiration and training for a new generation of puppeteers and performers. Those in the know still find their way to Dagmar Passage from all over the world.

After John Wright died in 1991, the work of the theatre continued apace under the direction of Lyndie Wright and Christopher Leith, a renowned puppeteer who had learned his craft at Little Angel. They encouraged new collaborations with writers, directors and musicians, including John Agard, Ken Campbell, Howard Gayton and Henk Shut, to produce a succession of innovative and highly acclaimed shows.

Little Angel Theatre continues to command international respect for the artistic quality of its productions, and is dearly loved by children and adults alike. At the close of 2014 Little Angel Theatre opened Little Angel Studios; an invaluable hub for creativity, education and professional development, just a moment’s walk from the theatre.

In light of the pandemic, we have expanded our programme to on-screen. We wanted to bring the joy of theatre into the homes of thousands of families over the world at a time that was extremely uncertain for many. Our YouTube channel has received over 1 million views, 48,000 watch hours (5.5 years!) and 7.6million reach to 95 countries since the birth of our Watch, Make, Share series and we are extremely excited to see this evolve in LAT’s future.