A magical baby goes on a journey in a shoe - could it be another Clangers?

Perfectly paced for its half hour duration, this puppet show’s trippy story about a magical baby’s adventures in a shoe is beautiful, odd, and a huge hit with its young audience, including my own 20 month-old who I thought might be too young for it.

I needn’t have worried. She howled with laughter at the talking shoes. She blew kisses at the pink cockatoo. She cried during every scene change just in case they signalled the end of the show. And she loved the moon-faced giants so fiercely that when she had to say goodbye to them, she cried non-stop for the 20 minutes it took us to reach home and the distraction of glitter glue.

None of this is a surprise – Shoe Baby is an open secret amongst Brighton parents of children under the age of 6, and all 4 performances of its 2007 run for the Brighton Fringe Festival at the Marlborough Theatre were sold out.

The show is based on a book written by Joyce Dunbar and illustrated by her talented daughter, Polly, and the music for the puppet show was created by Gomez’ Tom Gray - which makes me feel slightly less embarrassed about the frequency with which I find myself humming ‘Toot, toot, scoot, scoot in my magic motor shoe’ in the shower.

Something about Shoe Baby sticks. The ideas are simple enough for even the smallest ones to understand, the tunes are great and the puppets are strangely affecting.

I can’t help but wonder whether Shoe Baby might not turn out to be as resonant and redolent of childhood for this generation of toddlers as the Clangers and Puff the Magic Dragon are for me. It deserves to be.

By Shella Parkin, BBC Southern Counties

Recently, at the marvellous Komedia in Brighton, I saw one of the best pieces of theatre that I’ve yet encountered. It’s called Shoe Baby, created by a new company called Long Nose Puppets. It’s as entertaining as The Enchanted Toyshop, but is an even richer experience, possibly because it’s more intimate and suitable for even younger children.

Shoe Baby , adapted from Joyce Dunbar’s book, is a story about a baby who leaves the immobile world of babyhood to go on a weird and wonderful toddler adventure in a shoe. It appears simple. The stagecraft and music (the latter by Tom Gray of the band Gomez), both integral to the story, feel homemade but are intricately crafted. The show combines simplicity, complexity and the surreal — with a very scary moment involving some giants. Parents are as transfixed as their children, some of whom are just over a year old. It was not only the most imaginative but the most philosophical piece of theatre I’d seen in ages.

Richard Dyball, The Times

Shoe Baby has been twice listed in the top 5 national children’s events, The Times

‘This puppet show is delightful. The creativity and craft which has gone into it is just superb, with a very lifelike baby, a brilliant, colourful landscape and lots of animals and creatures, including giants. It is immediately apparent that these puppeteers are very skilled, right down to the intricate needlework of the backdrops. The direction of this show is collaborative. The quality of the puppeteer work is excellent, It’s a simple story but a rather beautiful one and from it Long Nosed Puppets have created wonderful, magical children’s theatre at its best.’ Edinburgh guide

‘More!’ demanded a two-year-old in the front row, after hearing the first song at this opening performance, and it was a sentiment seemingly held by the whole of this sell-out crowd of delighted youngsters, all enthralled by the four-person team on stage and the colourful set around them. The beautifully manoeuvered cast make this magical world of flying shoes come alive, so that the show offers much more than a typical Punch and Judy. Rosy cheeked, rotund and unfailingly polite, Shoe Baby is adorable, and I particularly liked the wonderful octopus whose legs are made of an old umbrella, while the kids adored the bubble-blowing and wandering giants. Importantly, the length was well-judged; a bouncy 25 minutes. It’s a great, glittery adventure – get along to the Marlborough and sing ‘how do you do?’ to the Shoe Baby.Rating 5/5
‘Three Weeks’ Magazine.

If a 2.5 year old with chicken pox can sit mesmarised through this anyone can. Absolutely brilliant. Even the adults loved it. Excellent!!! A++++
Shona Duffus

‘Have just seen the puppet show of “Shoe Baby” with my two and a half year old and wanted to let you know that I think it is possibly the best children’s show I have ever seen. It was a total delight - brilliantly pitched for the age of the audience, a beautiful story, the music was in a league of its own, and as for the set and puppet design … magical. You have created something very special.’
Polly Strauss

‘There’s a home-made charm to Polly Dunbar and Katherine Morton’s puppets for this adaptation of Joyce Dunbar’s children’s book - originally illustrated by Polly herself. Talking shoes left in the bottom of a cupboard - from which the Shoe Baby can emerge - a delightful rolling backdrop through the city on the way to the zoo and, once there, a pair of singing giraffe arm puppets. It is all inventive stuff, a rag-bag octopus supported on the skeleton of an umbrella is particularly so, with plenty to feast the eyes upon.’ The Stage

‘I took a group to Shoe Baby that ranged from18 months to 70 years (yes…great granny came too!!!) and we all LOVED IT, bought the book, bought the CD and are just about to buy our tickets to see it again in May…It’s marvellous.’
Niky (Editor Netmums.com)

Praise be then for the wonderful Shoe Baby puppet show, which begins, “There once was a baby who hid in a shoe and had learnt how to say, ‘How do you do?’” I’ve sat through some tediously twee puppet shows before but this one bounced along for a perfectly paced half an hour or so - there were no toilet breaks to contend with or running and screaming in the aisles.
The music, by Tom Gray of Gomez, was absolutely fantastic and the sets and puppeteering spot on. We loved the colourful octopus and its umbrella body, and the stop-start journey of the baby on the way to the zoo had everyone laughing.

There were a few alarmed faces at the front when a pair of giants briefly broke through the fourth wall, but all was assuaged when the puppeteers revealed themselves after the show and sat with their puppets on their lap and talked to the children about how they worked them. That’s the way to do it!
Chris Hall, The Guardian