Puppet Theatre Barge

Specialties

The Puppet Theatre Barge is a unique, fifty-​seat marionette theatre on a converted barge in London. The theatre presents puppet shows for children and adults and is moored in Little Venice throughout the year and in Richmond-​upon-​Thames during the summer.

History

Established in 1982.

Gren Middleton and Juliet Rogers formed Movingstage Marionette Company in 1979. After a couple of years touring marionette shows, Middleton and Rogers bought an old 80 ft Thames lighter of riveted iron construction, built in the 1930s and converted it into a double-​bridge string marionette theatre.

The Puppet Theatre Barge was opened to the public on 28 January 1982 at Camden Lock in north London. Its first performance was The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In 1988, the barge moved to the basin at Little Venice, near Paddington.

Since 2009, the barge has put on shows in Little Venice from October to June and spent the summer months moored at Richmond-​upon-​Thames.