Quentin Blake’s beloved character comes to life in a brand-new stage adaptation of Mrs Armitage on Wheels, part of Southbank Centre’s Imagine Festival.
We spoke to puppetry designer Maia Kirkman-Richards about the creative process behind the show’s inventive and playful puppetry.
Mrs Armitage on Wheels runs from 18–21 February 2026 at Southbank Centre. Tickets start from £20 and can be booked here.
You’re designing the puppetry for Mrs Armitage on Wheels at Southbank Centre – what can you tell us about the show?
This show is a brand-new production of Mrs Armitage on Wheels, full of creativity, music and playfulness. It centres around a confidently creative and wonderfully unique hero – Mrs Armitage.
You can definitely expect lots of inventions, plenty of puppetry and some brilliant original music.
What drew you to this project and Quentin Blake’s world of imagination?
Adapting books for the stage always poses such an exciting challenge for me. It’s all about getting the right balance between the responsibility to be faithful to those loved characters while also wanting to push and test my own creativity.
It feels important to me that children are able to come to the show and instantly recognise the characters that they love from the story, so that’s where I always begin my process.
With Quentin Blake’s illustrations specifically, it’s been a joyful task. His energetic illustrations are so expressive, mischievous and full of energy, while also having a real element of charming minimalism.
Crafting Breakspear has been all about figuring out how to take those loose, expressive, inky scribbles and turn them into a three-dimensional, moving puppet that can display a full range of emotions without overcomplicating the design.
How do you approach creating puppets that feel alive and integral to the storytelling?
I’m at a point in my career where I’m most interested in creating puppetry that actively helps to push a narrative forward rather than behaving like an accessory to a show.
Breakspear the dog is perfect for this as he’s with us throughout the entire show as Mrs Armitage’s faithful sidekick. Before we even start rehearsals, the creative team have been working closely to help weave him actively into the narrative, so his presence onstage is a real collaborative effort.
Not only does he have little howls during some of Jessie’s songs, but Ryan has also worked hard to make sure there are levels and gaps within the set for Breakspear to pop his head through.
As for the design itself, I’m a big believer that art inspires art, so my process almost always starts with a huge research session… and often it’s not at all the sort of images or research that you’d expect would match the project!
On my research and inspiration board for this build you’ll find a whole lot of knitwear and lace. I found that I was intrigued by the idea of texture and finding materials that would age well and look ‘lived in’, which was inspired by Quentin’s choice of colours within his illustrations.
It’s a real privilege to be able to fall down a creative rabbit hole for a short while before you have to crack on with the job of building everything!
What has been the most exciting or challenging aspect of bringing Mrs Armitage’s eccentric inventions to life on stage?
This project has really tested and challenged the limits of what we class as a puppet because in Mrs Armitage’s world, everything has a personality and a magical life of its own.
Not only do we have puppets in the more traditional sense (recognisable hedgehogs and a dog), but we also have objects that spring to life and a bike that conjures itself up around her.
The tricky part has been figuring out how to make each one of Mrs Armitage’s inventions seem wonderfully improvised and yet be robust enough to survive a full run of shows!
And that’s actually what creating puppets is all about – it’s such a balance between the practical and the aesthetic.
How does puppetry enhance the audience experience in a production like this?
In a show all about imagination and invention, puppetry is the perfect tool! You can literally watch drawings become objects, and objects become characters full of personality right in front of your eyes.
For young people specifically, I think there’s a real magic in puppetry – it’s like an old-school form of play and one without any screens or special effects.
It’s just people making something extraordinary out of ordinary materials, meaning that everyone’s imagination is complicit, which is exactly the spirit of Mrs Armitage.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see Mrs Armitage on Wheels?
Oh, well I’d love for you to come and see what we’re making!
I’d say come along for 50 minutes of pure inventive silliness, original music, a very characterful dog and a story that gets more eccentric by the minute.
You’ll leave with a smile, a head full of catchy songs and hopefully a creative urge to go home and reimagine even the most mundane of household objects!
