The cast for this production includes serving and veteran military personnel and their family members. With puppetry and original storytelling, this is an unmissable production adapted from the story. The 1966 story is told with a combination of human and puppet actors, with the puppets portraying the children and the dog. As the story of events during the War unfolds, we see them depicted by much smaller, detailed and totally believable puppets, on a set which can be transformed from an upturned rowing boat to a sinking battleship. It is the puppetry that is without doubt the greatest strength of the production. The children with their dog convince utterly and engage with the audience quite naturally. As we get deeper into the story, the smaller WW2 puppets stay rightly distant and we quite properly see that story enacted from afar. Puppetry Director Marc Parrett has done a magnificent job.

They usually called him Mannie. Their mum, Grace, had this toy dog on 4 wheels called, Little Manfred. Her husband busted one of the wheels last Christmas. But Alex and Charley never understood why Little Manfred meant so much to their mum until this wild and blustery day in 1966. In the Imperial War Museum is a wooden Dachshund, carved by a German prisoner of war for the children of the British family with which he stayed after the fighting ended. This is the story of how it got there...In November 2016 Michael Morpurgo won the J M Barrie Award for his contribution to children’s literature.This award is given every year by Action for Children’s Arts to a “children’s arts practitioner” whose lifetime’s work has delighted children and will stand the test of time.

In the Imperial War Museum is a carved wooden Dachshund, made by a German prisoner of war. This is the incredible story of how it got there… The script is an adaptation by Damian Cruden and Amanda Faber, and Cruden also co-directs with Tom Bellerby. The result is a sensitive transformation to the stage which works well and benefits from an occasional metatheatrical touch, as when we are told there will be an interval during which we can think more about the story. It is at that point, too, that the cast come out and talk to the audience with the puppets, a much more effective timing than at the end though hard on the actors perhaps. For more information about the work of Farms for City Children, please visit www.farmsforcitychildren.org Part 5: The Future - 1991. Little Manfred is donated to the Imperial War Museum where he lives on as a symbol of friendship. A son and grandson of actors, Michael has acting in his blood and enjoys collaborating and performing live adaptations of his books at festivals, concerts and theatres.

Michael Morpurgo and Michael Foreman will be appearing at a Little Manfred event at the Imperial War Museum on 6 June at 7pm. Michael Morpurgo weaves a story through of friendship amidst trial, taking us on a journey through England (and Germany's) near history. Told in five parts he shows us the people who make us who we are. Soldiers Arts Academy provides opportunities for serving and ex-service personnel and their families to have access to the arts and training in performance skills. Their production Little Manfred opened at the Polka Theatre, where a full house enjoyed this touching tale from the book by Michael Morpurgo.

The only wrong note for me was the very short sequence with the wartime farmer and wife, where the humour revolved around the fact that they had funny Suffolk accents which the Germans couldn’t understand. Although the actor performing this sequence did it very well, it still seemed out of keeping with the rest of the production to play it for laughs, as did the decision to use two rather more caricatured puppets for these two characters. The script of the play suggests these characters should be more abstract, so perhaps shadow puppets would have been better? The postscript section at the end with two more actors and set 25 years later also seemed rushed, although the final image of the wooden dog was touching and appropriate. Michael's books have been translated into many languages including Chinese, Bulgarian and Hungarian, Hebrew and Japanese. He travels all over the UK and abroad talking to people of all ages at literary festivals, telling his stories and encouraging them to tell theirs. Michael Morpurgo has thrilled and delighted huge numbers of young readers since becoming a children’s author in the early 1970s," Wood said. "Action for Children’s Arts is delighted to recognise Michael’s outstanding contribution by presenting him with the J M Barrie Award 2016. His work will undoubtedly, like Peter Pan, stand the test of time, making him a truly worthy recipient of this award."Includes: Afterword covering the Bismark particularly the last battle, German POWs in the UK, and The World Cup, 1966. Ms Faber, founder of Soldiers' Arts Academy, said: "We are delighted to be presenting Little Manfred in Name of Venue. To work with Sir Michael and Michael Foreman and this wonderful creative team is a real career high for everyone at Soldiers' Arts Academy. Part 2: The Past - 1941. The Bismark destroys HMS Hood (only three men survived), and in turn is destroyed resulting in the deaths of more than 2000 men. Walter and Manfred are taken to the UK as POWs. This pull-along Daschund toy dog was made for Christopher Duke and his brother from an old apple crate fixed together with pieces of scrap metal. It was one of several homemade toys made for the children of the Duke family by German prisoners of war who worked on Wested Farm near Swanley in Kent during the final years of the Second World War. The Duke children had very few toys so these homemade gifts were cherished by them. For readers aged eight and over, this captivating novel offers an insight into how Hitler came to power, refracted through the gaze of the young narrator.' Telegraph

The third strand of the book and one that is central, is something I stumbled upon at one of my events. After a platform talk at the National Theatre following a performance of War Horse - an elderly man came up to me and told me that the play had taken him to places that he thought he would never go again. We talked about the futility of war and it was clear that he wanted to tell me something important. There are eight actors in the piece with some alternating, listed only as Actors 1 to 10, so it is difficult to comment individually. The main performers are Charlotte Green, Maisie Armah, Harry Lay, Adam Wittek, Tip Cullen and Julie Teal. All are to be commended, especially for their puppetry skills. They consistently and properly act through their puppets rather than just operating them, and they achieve some remarkable effects. The dog Manny was particularly impressive, as was the whole sequence on the Bismark. The letter and the toy were both a gift of reconciliation but also an appeal for food as conditions in Germany were harsh just after the war. We were both really touched by this wonderful object and the letter and wanted to explore this further.

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You can also read about his life in War Child to War Horse,a collaborative biography with Maggie Fergusson.