An award-winning puppet show has been bringing the Kindertransport story to a new generation of children.
Heralded as “deeply emotional and thought provoking”, ‘Kinder’ tells how a young Jewish Czech girl flees the Nazis.
The little girl, Babi, is seen sitting on a train seat in 1938 before making her epic journey across Europe from Prague to settle by the seaside in Margate.
The production uses hand-held puppets and shadow play, shadows of cut-out figures.
Thousands of children escaped from the Nazis and made it across Europe to Britain as the clouds of war gathered thanks to the Kindertransport.
Like Babi, Czech Kindertransport children were evacuated to seaside towns across the UK.
The Czech Kindertransport was famously organised by Britain’s Nicholas Winton, who saved 669 children.
Decades later, in 1988, Dame Esther Rantzen highlighted Winton’s story on a memorable That’s Life! show, surprising him by reuniting him with some of the children, by then middle-aged, who he had saved.
Babi settles in Margate in the story (The Other Richard/Smoking Apples)The Other Richard
Molly Freeman, the director and co-writer of ‘Kinder’, said the Kindertransport story is still relevant today.
She said: “Kinder has been playing to audiences for almost four years and it's still as captivating to audiences now, as it was when we first premiered the show.
"The story has huge importance and whilst the events of the Kindertransport are historical, there is still an immediate relevancy to contemporary audiences.
"People still understand what it feels like to be displaced, what it feels like to be lost, what it feels like to be scared, and these are often shared experiences.” she said.
“The universal message of kindness in ‘Kinder’ also still resonates with contemporary audiences.
"It's about how small acts of kindness can change the course of someone's life, and remembering that people are people, regardless of their faith, identity, nationality or race, particularly in circumstances that they have not chosen to be.”
The show has received significant recognition since its premiere, winning two Offies theatre awards in 2023, for production and original music or sound in the Theatre for Young Audiences category.
Puppeteer Hattie Thomas holds Babi (Photo-Smoking Apples Theatre)[Missing Credit]
It was also a finalist for the Offie for writing and won an Ettie Award for Best Theatre for Young Audiences Production.
Theatre critics have praised its visual imagination and emotional impact.
Everything Theatre described it as “Unmissable”, while BroadwayWorld called it “A Brilliant Blend of Clever Storytelling”. Another review, from West End Evenings, described the production as “A Symphony of Artistry”.
Fairy Powered Productions described it as “A Must See Play”.
Trailor for 'Kinder'[Missing Credit]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyBuaecWIiw
Audience responses have also praised the production's ability to encourage conversations about refugees and migration today.
A representative of Harrogate Theatres, Porl Cooper, praised its potential for engaging audiences with “current conversations about migrants and refugees too”, including experiences beyond the Kindertransport itself.
Critic Kat Masterson called it “Deeply emotional and thought-provoking”, while Always Time For Theatre praised it as “Clever and inventive, visually rich and beautifully emotive”.
The Reviews Hub awarded it four-and-a-half stars, describing the show as “Absorbing and Touching”.
A shadow puppet scene from the show (Photo-Smoking Apples Theatre)[Missing Credit]
A member of Lewisham Youth Theatre also praised the technical performance, saying: “The puppetry was very well controlled and the music made a massive impact on me, it was almost like my chest was collapsing”.
Smoking Apples, the theatre company behind the show, was founded in 2010 by Molly Freeman, Matt Lloyd and Hattie Field, and specialises in visually inventive theatre that explores complex subjects through human stories.
The cast of Kinder, (left to right) Hattie Thomas, George Bellamy and David Burchhardt,[Missing Credit]
Its previous productions have examined motor neurone disease, the struggles of a trawler fisherman and the experiences of a female nuclear physicist.
The company's work has toured nationally and internationally, including performances in Germany, the Czech Republic, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Its educational activities also include workshops and youth theatre projects.
The Kindertransport rescue effort brought approximately 10,000, predominantly Jewish children, to safety in Britain.
Many arrived without their parents, who remained in Nazi-controlled Europe.
The story of Babi moves between the past and the present.
Babi and her older self (Photo-The Other Richard)The Other Richard
The production is supported by public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England, alongside the Enterprise Arts Trust.
Four performances of ‘Kinder’ have just been performed at Woodstock's Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum.
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