This Christmas, Birmingham’s Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) is hosting Finding Santa, an interactive play for young audiences performed by Little Angel Theatre. Featuring lovable puppets and fabulous festive fun, the show presents a heartwarming Choose Your Own Adventure story that answers the age-old question of how letters get to Santa at the North Pole - and what happens when things don’t go quite according to plan! What’s On spoke to director Samantha Lane of Little Angel Theatre to find out more...

Tell us about Finding Santa, Samantha. The play is quite interactive - how do audiences get involved in the show?
The crux of the story is that two elves, Tatty and Pumpkin, are on their way to bring the Christmas letters to Santa on Christmas Eve. A little accident happens, and the sleigh overturns. Pumpkin and Tatty fall out, as do all the letters, and the sleigh carries on flying back to Santa. They’ve got to make their way back to the North Pole, find the letters and get them back to Santa in time for Christmas Eve, so that he can deliver all of the Christmas presents!

It’s a Choose Your Own Adventure. I don’t know whether you’ve ever come across those books, where you read a couple of pages and it will say “If you want to take the left path, turn to page 15; if you want to take the right path, turn to page 16…” The direction the story takes depends on the choice that you make. It’s exactly the same concept - the performers actually have to learn multiple versions of the show, and at various points they ask the audience to help them make a choice about which direction they take. 

All of Little Angel’s productions involve puppetry. How does working with puppets change the way a show develops?
I love puppetry for the same reason that I love working with children - it asks much more of its audience, because it asks you to believe that an inanimate object is alive... Children don’t want to block that; they instantly want to believe it, too. They are working with you in a way that’s just absolutely incredible. The combination of those two things is just pure magic, pure theatre. 

It’s vital that we’re working with really strong, skilled puppeteers. There is a belief that if you’re an actor, you can puppet, but it’s simply not true, they’re very different skills... Finding Santa is an example of a show that requires puppetry and acting.
The reason I work in theatre is because it’s a collaborative art form... You’re bringing a whole group of different creative people together in one room and finding solutions to bring that show to life collectively. For me, that’s the joy of making theatre.

Little Angel Theatre have performed at MAC many times - why does the venue suit your style of show?
It’s a great venue in its commitment to family work… It gives such a good long run of a show to young audiences. I think it’s the perfect venue for that - it’s a great location, and it’s got that commitment to its community, and the people who live around it, which is at the heart of our ethos as well.

What’s the recommended age range for Finding Santa audiences? Is there an age that might be too young?
It’s quite wordy - if you’re super-little and you haven’t got the grasp of language, I think you’re going to miss some moments. That’s not to say a two-year-old can’t come along with their five- or six-year-old sibling… Tatty and Pumpkin talk their way through all of these scenarios, and the way they engage with the audience is through chat as well, so it’s a wordy show. I’d say up to the age of four, it’s more difficult to follow what’s going on, but there are some really gorgeous moments with the puppets that are really visual, so you’ll get something out of it.

How do you make sure that all audiences feel relaxed and empowered to join in?
My two kids hate the idea of being singled out, or the idea that you might get called up on to the stage - they’re quite introverted in that sense. Some kids, honestly, their hands wouldn’t stretch high enough for how much they want to be on stage!
I think with this particular show, it doesn’t put anybody on the spot in an awful way. Before the show starts, Pumpkin and Tatty, the two elves, are out in the audience, talking to people, telling them jokes, really engaging with the children - and in particular, those children who might feel a little bit less inclined to get involved. 
When they do make that first approach to the audience, it’s not a complete shock - they’ve met them already. The audience sees that they’re kind, and Tatty particularly is silly. It’s just about warming people up to that idea. In the end, the decisions are made collectively by the whole audience, so no one is made to feel awkward in any way.

There are lots of fun characters in Finding Santa. Do you have a favourite?
I don’t want to give any of the puppet characters away - at every point of the journey, Pumpkin and Tatty will meet a different character portrayed by a puppet, and that puppet will help them - or not - on their journey. 
I absolutely adore Pumpkin and Tatty, who are not puppets but human actors. Pumpkin is incredibly serious and believes in sense and logic, and Tatty is the complete opposite, thinking that you can get through life just by tomfoolery! It’s really interesting to see those two characters thinking that their way is the right way… The way that the relationship between the elves changes over the course of the show is really nice.

Feature by Jessica Clixby

Finding Santa shows at Birmingham’s Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) from Wednesday 20 November until Sunday 29 December