Little Manfred

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David Wood, chair of Action for Children’s Arts, said Morpurgo is “one of our greatest storytellers”.

Michael's books have been translated into many languages including Chinese, Bulgarian and Hungarian, Hebrew and Japanese. He travels all over the UK and abroad talking to people of all ages at literary festivals, telling his stories and encouraging them to tell theirs. The cast for this production includes serving and veteran military personnel and their family members. With puppetry and original storytelling, this is an unmissable production adapted from the story. In the Imperial War Museum is a wooden Dachshund, carved by a German prisoner of war for the children of the British family with which he stayed after the fighting ended. This is the story of how it got there… In November 2016 Michael Morpurgo won the J M Barrie Award for his contribution to children’s literature.This award is given every year by Action for Children’s Arts to a “children’s arts practitioner” whose lifetime’s work has delighted children and will stand the test of time.

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In the Imperial War Museum is a wooden Dachshund, carved by a German prisoner of war for the children of the British family with which he stayed after the fighting ended. This is the story of how it got there...

As ever, Morpurgo's warmth and humanity suffuse a story of courage, love and hope. -- Amanda Craig, The Times Part 2: The Past - 1941. The Bismark destroys HMS Hood (only three men survived), and in turn is destroyed resulting in the deaths of more than 2000 men. Walter and Manfred are taken to the UK as POWs. The 1966 story is told with a combination of human and puppet actors, with the puppets portraying the children and the dog. As the story of events during the War unfolds, we see them depicted by much smaller, detailed and totally believable puppets, on a set which can be transformed from an upturned rowing boat to a sinking battleship. It is the puppetry that is without doubt the greatest strength of the production. The children with their dog convince utterly and engage with the audience quite naturally. As we get deeper into the story, the smaller WW2 puppets stay rightly distant and we quite properly see that story enacted from afar. Puppetry Director Marc Parrett has done a magnificent job.One day in 1966, after England versus Germany in the football world cup final, a boy and girl went to the beach to play ball with their dog. When they were there they met a German man called Walter and another called Marty who told the children all about the war and the wooden dog they gave to Grace (the children’s mother) when they left to return to Germany. Part 5: The Future - 1991. Little Manfred is donated to the Imperial War Museum where he lives on as a symbol of friendship. Morpurgo’s book was based on a true story after illustrator Michael Foreman saw a toy wooden dog in the Imperial War Museum. He brought the story to Morpurgo’s attention, and the book was published in 2011. Once again, this author showed his ability to bring the horrors of war and the need for reconciliation to a young audience. The inventive design for the play by Dawn Allsop is not only totally clever and original but also seems to pay due deference to Foreman’s illustrations.