Giant puppet to walk from Syria to UK to highlight plight of refugee children

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A puppet figure of a young girl will walk from the Turkish-Syrian border to the UK in a new theatrical project to highlight the plight of refugee children.

The Walk, which will take place between April and July next year, is the latest project from Good Chance Theatre – the group who created 2017 theatre show The Jungle about people living in the Calais migrant camp.

The show featured a character called Amal, a nine-year-old refugee. For The Walk, the character has been transformed into a 3.5 metre puppet, created by Handspring Puppet Company who made the award-winning puppets featured in West End hit War Horse.

'Little Amal', will travel over 8000km across Turkey, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and France to reach the UK in search of her mother.

Along the way, more than 70 cities, towns and villages are set to welcome Little Amal with art shows, street parades and city-wide performances of music, dance and theatre.

Her journey will finish in Manchester in a large-scale outdoor event at Manchester International Festival (MIF) in July 2021.

The project has been two years in the making and involved theatre practitioners from across Europe.

Stephen Daldry, the director of movies Billy Elliot and The Hours who is a producer on Netflix hit The Crown, is part of the team putting on the show.

He said: "Little Amal’s story transcends borders and language to highlight the challenges that refugee children face, challenges that are ever more pressing during this pandemic. But she is also a figure of great hope. At times like these we need art more than we ever have so I very much look forward to thousands of people across the world being able to follow Little Amal’s dramatic journey across Europe in search of her mother."

David Lan, one of the producers of the show, said the “high ambitious” project was to highlight the plight of young refugees around the world.

He said: “The message is ‘don’t forget about us.’ The pandemic has been grim, awful for everyone. But for refugees, it has been worse. We can’t forget about people who are so vulnerable.”

Written by Good Chance Theatre founders Joe Robertson and Joe Murphy, The Jungle premiered at the Young Vic Theatre in December 2017 before transferring to the Playhouse Theatre. It had its Off-Broadway premiere in December 2018 at St Ann’s Warehouse in New York.

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