SPECIAL DELIVERY is a simple story about the delights of trying something unexpected. When a heavily laden postman is suddenly surprised by a rain shower he discovers that all his packages have lost their labels. In the process of trying to work out the intended recipients, he discovers a bit more about the people on his rounds – and decides to bring a little sunshine into all of their lives.

Special delivery is a highly flexible show and appeals to both adults and children, blending beautiful puppetry with a good dollop of silliness. It has no spoken language and is performed to a soundtrack of silent film music, operated from the bicycle. It has no power requirements and needs a flat area of 4m wide by 3m deep. The set consists of an old-fashioned bicycle in a floor stand with attached packages, which incorporate puppet worlds of different scales.

“Special Delivery is an exceptionally brilliant piece of puppet theatre, bewitching for both and adult and a child as well as being completely charming. In addition to being one of my favourite pieces of family work in 2017 it is also easy to site, capturing both the practicalities needed for outdoor work as well as the potential to surprise and enchant -with the postman’s parcels opening up into new, unsuspected worlds, full of stories.”

— Cathryn Peach, Programmer, Just So festival