The famous giant puppet Little Amal who captured the world's recognition last year is due to visit Bristol. She will make her journey through the city on June 24 as part of World Refugee Week (June 19-27).
Little Amal is a partly-animatronic giant puppet measuring 11ft which was created with the intention of celebrating human migration and cultural diversity. The puppet is the creation of Good Chance Theatre, in collaboration with South African Handspring Puppet Company, the producers of War Horse, conceived to refocus our attention on the urgent needs of young refugees.
Her Bristol journey will begin outside Bristol Old Vic on King Street at 4pm and then via Welsh Back to Bristol’s famous St Nicholas Market and historic Corn Street. She will pause to listen to music and watch performances by local artists, going on to meet local communities before leaving the city at the Harbour.
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Tom Morris, Creative Director at Bristol Old Vic, commented: "We are excited to welcome Little Amal to Bristol to meet the community, to see our beautiful city and to find out more about Bristol’s status as a City of Sanctuary.
"Amal travels everywhere with a spirit of curiosity. By welcoming her to Bristol we will also learn from her, understanding more about our own complicated past and our dream of being a fairer and more welcoming city in the future."
The puppet's Little Amal persona originated as a character in The Jungle, a play created in the Calais jungle encampment in 2015. Little Amal - which means 'hope' in Arabic - represents a nine-year-old Syrian refugee girl who travels alone across Europe to find her mother in the 2021 project The Walk.
Last year she won the hearts of the UK by raising awareness of the plight of lone child refugees. The puppet visited Lviv in Ukraine to highlight the suffering of young families and children as a result of the Russian invasion.
It was in this project where Little Amal spent five months walking nearly 5,000 miles from the Syria-Turkey border through Europe and onto the United Kingdom, stopping in 65 towns and cities along the way.
