Exclusive interview with Little Angel Theatre co-founder, Lyndie Wright

here is something distinctively magical about the Little Angel Theatre. It lies set back from a busy Essex Road on the leafy Dagmar Avenue - hidden and unassuming from the din of the traffic.

"It’s funny because some people who live in Islington might not know we’re here, laughs Lyndie Wright, one of the founders of the much-loved and internationally recognised puppet theatre.

The theatre was founded in 1961 when Lyndie and her husband John Wright, a South African puppeteer master, found the modest sized building. They swiftly snapped it up for just £750. But the former temperance hall was a bombshell after the second world war and needed a great deal of work to begin performances.

"It was perfect, recalls Lyndie, "there was no roof and it needed a lot of work but we knew we’d found the right place."

It came with a cottage next door and it was here that Lyndie set up a home with her husband John, who died in 1991, aged 82. Lyndie retired in 2002 but still lives next door to the theatre. In 2000 she handed the theatre over to a charitable trust.

Her love for puppetry began as a child growing up in South Africa. Although she trained as an artist and painter at Central School for Art, she remained fascinated by puppetry.

"Painting can be such a lonely occupation, I just found the world of puppetry so much more exciting and I gravitated towards what John was doing," says Lyndie.

They began shows using marionettes but over the next 30 years they created and performed more than 30 full-scale shows, touring the UK, Europe and the Far East. Their children, Sarah and Joe, still have involvement in the theatre.

Fifty years on, the theatre has garnered support from across the world, creating leading puppeteers across the world.

Who would have imagined the 100-seat theatre would grow to draw international status, was it something both Lyndie and John had envisaged?

"Yes, John and I knew how important puppetry was as an art form. London didn’t have anything like this at the time so we wanted to bring this to the UK.

"It grows all the time, I’d never have dreamt that this tiny building would be known by people in China. I was over there a few years ago and the streets of Yangzhou were lined with people waiting for us. It was incredible," adds Lyndie.

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