Pickled Image to Present THE SHOP OF LITTLE HORRORS at the Pleasance, Oct 26-28

Following a successful premiere earlier this year, award-winning theatre company Pickled Image are delighted to be at SUSPENSE Festival to present The Shop of Little Horrors, a dark, twisted tale that combines the companies' trademark macabre puppets, and weird and wonderful masks with rich storytelling and black comedy. The Shop of Little Horrors will run Saturday 26 & Sunday 27 October, 4.30pm & 8.30pm and Monday 28 October, 8.30pm at the Pleasance Theatre.

How do you scream without moving your lips?

The Shop of Little Horrors follows the story of proprietor Albert Grimlake of Grimlake's Emporium of Novelties a dilapidated shop on the outskirts of Nowhere, a place where corny magic tricks and strange puppets collect dust and cobwebs.

Albert is a man obsessed with puppets, particularly ventriloquist dummies - each face lovingly crafted by his own hand, and bearing an uncanny resemblance to customers, friends and family long gone. But Grimlake is growing old and knows he won't last forever. He has no son, no successor. Time is running out to find someone to keep the Emporium open....

Following the success of acclaimed productions including Hunger, Houdini's Suitcase and Late Night Wolf Tales, Pickled Image returns with a deliciously dark show that will have you on The Edge of your seats.

The Shop of Little Horrors is produced in association with The North Wall, Oxford.

Talking about the production Vicky Andrews (co-founder of Pickled Image and producer of The Shop of Little Horrors) said: "We are really excited to be taking The Shop of Little Horrors out on the road. It went down a storm with audiences at The North Wall and The Met earlier this year. The puppets have already freaked people out in our workshop, and we are confident they will have the desired effect of scaring people out of their wits on the show!"

The Shop of Little Horrors is supported by Arts Council England. Created in association with The North Wall Oxford Running time: 1 hour, 10 mins. Tickets: £12 / £10 conc // Venues: Pleasance Theatre (mainspace)

SUSPENSE FESTIVAL
Pleasance Theatre, London
Carpenter Mews, North Road, London N7 9EF
020 7609 1800
Festival Box Office: 020 7226 1787
www.pleasance.co.uk

About Pickled Image: Formed in 2000, Pickled Image specialises in puppetry for live performance and theatre. Since its inception, the company has gained international recognition and numerous awards for their darkly humorous visual productions.

About The North Wall: The North Wall, Oxford is an arts centre that has been created for the benefit of emerging artists across a range of disciplines. Based on the campus of St Edward's School, its core mission is educational and through its outreach work it aims to bring aspiring artists from across the nation together with cutting edge Theatre, Dance, Film and Music professionals. It seeks to break down barriers to both participation and careers in the arts. It is also a valued resource for the local and wider Oxfordshire community.

The Shop of Little Horrors Creative Team:

Dik Downey Co-Director of Pickled Image, performing the role of Albert Grimlake. Dik has been a puppeteer for over twenty years, and regularly performs in theatres, puppet festivals and street theatre festivals all over the world. He is the creative mastermind behind all of Pickled Image's puppets and is delighted to be working with Emma Powell a young puppet maker based in Bristol who designed and engineered the mechanisms for the ventriloquist puppets in the show.

Vicky Andrews Co-Director Pickled Image, Vicky has been the creative producer with the production, and designed the costumes for the puppets and actors. Her creative background is in theatre design and illustration.

Emma Williams Director: Emma trained at Dartington College of Arts and at The University of Bristol. This is her fourth production with Pickled Image but her first that involves ventriloquist dummies. She has also directed shows for The Desperate Men, Stickleback Plasticus and The Tobacco Factory Theatre with the critically acclaimed Christmas show "The Lost Present." Recently she has been working with designer/puppeteer Max Humphries (360 Theatre, The National, Little Bulb) devising a one-man show exploring human consciousness and Artificial Intelligence. For the last five years she has been performance Director for The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama's Design and Puppetry production. The most recent being The Boy who went Fishing for Compliments by Daffyd James.

Adam Peck Dramaturg: Adam is a Bristol based dramaturg with extensive experience collaborating with companies in the South West. His recent work includes "Cinderella" Tobacco Factory & Travelling Light Theatre Company, "Only" Bristol Old Vic & Warwick Arts Centre, "Varmints" Sadlers Wells & Travelling Light Theatre Company and "Bonnie & Clyde" Theatre 503 to name a few.

Adam Blake Actor: Adam plays the part of Eric and Health & Safety Inspector in the show. Most of Adam's experience in performance has been in Clown and physical theatre. He's fallen in love with puppets and so he's very excited to be working with Pickled Image. He can often be seen performing with The Original Spinners, a dancing clown troupe, and Closer Each Day, an improvised soap opera, both based in Bristol. Recently he has been involved with Juncture Theatre's "A Little Nonsense" and Fellswoop Theatre's "Ablutions".

Anna Barrett Lighting Designer & Technician: As well as theatre, circus, dance and puppetry, Anna has lit art installations, casts of between one and 200, shows in rooms above pubs as well as on main stages, forests, churches, parks, o?ce blocks, big tops and abandoned buildings aplenty. Anna has previously designed for; Goat + Monkey, Library Theatre Manchester, New International Encounter, Pins And Needles, Idiot Child, Stand + Stare, Invisible Circus and Tobacco Factory Theatre amongst others. Anna is currently based in Bristol, UK and images of her work are available online at annabarrett.co.uk

Simon Preston Composer & sound designer: Simon is a Bristol based musician who has previously collaborated with Pickled Image, writing music for Houdini's Suitcase, Hunger and Little Edie. Simon regularly writes music for other companies such as Green Ginger and loves creating scores for Live Theatre.

Jenny Reeves Costume Maker: Jenny has extensive experience making costumes for actors and puppets for theatre, TV and film. Her attention to detail when making costumes for puppets is outstanding, she has previously worked for Aardman Animations making costumes for their stop motion films.

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