Pinocchio Visual Story - Norwich Puppet Theatre

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Pinocchio Visual Story

This is a visual resource designed for audiences of Pinocchio. It can be used to help prepare audiences for a new experience to help them become more familiar with what will happen during the show. Inside you will find: • General notes and content warnings (p2) • Photos of the main characters and settings in the show (p4-12) • An outline of the story, which includes trigger warnings for any

potentially distressing elements of the plot and production. These moments are in red (p13-18)

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General Notes/ Content Warnings Any content which might be scary or worrying has been written in red. Please be aware that there is a warning for smoke effects and flashing lights for this show. Pinocchio is the story of a puppet who comes alive and goes on an adventure. Along the way, Pinocchio faces quite a few dangers, as they meet mean characters who treat them badly. But don’t worry, everything eventually ends happily for Pinocchio. The world Pinocchio lives in is brightly coloured and a bit wacky, to show you that it isn’t the real world, but a land of make-believe. Sometimes the puppets might be thrown around the stage. This is okay, it doesn’t hurt them because they are not real. Both Pinocchio and Geppetta get eaten by a whale at different points in the story and end up inside the whale’s tummy. They are not harmed, but it might be a little scary. The scenes inside the whale’s tummy are made with shadows so these are a little spooky too. The show is performed by two performers who sing, act and puppeteer. The puppeteers tell the story of Pinocchio and use puppets to tell the story. They play all the characters between them. When the puppeteers operate the puppet characters and do their voices, you can see them behind the puppets. Sometimes the puppeteers are being themselves, and sometimes they are pretending to be the mean puppeteers within the story. When the puppeteers put on their black hats, they are the mean puppeteers, the Stromboli Brothers.

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We have two different teams of puppeteers who will perform Pinocchio on different days. You might see Zannie and Eden performing the show, or you might see Joy and Robbie performing the show.

These are our puppeteers

Zannie

Eden

Robbie Joy

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Characters You will see lots of characters in the show. Some will be played by the performers, and some will be puppets. Sometimes they appear as shadows on a screen. Here are some of the characters you'll see.

The Blue Fairy The Blue Fairy is a mysterious, magical character who appears at various points in Pinocchio’s story. She helps to create Pinocchio and saves them from the Cat and Fox. The Blue Fairy wears a turquoise-blue skirt and has blue skin. Whenever the Blue Fairy appears there is a smoke effect.

Blue Fairy In shadow As a Helicopter

with spinning propeller hat

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Geppetta Geppetta is a poor carpenter who lives alone. She creates Pinocchio in her workshop. Geppetta always wears a blue bobble hat.

Played by Joy Played by Zannie

In shadow On her boat

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Pinocchio Pinocchio is a puppet who is created from magical ‘bits and bobs’ by Geppetta. Pinocchio has a stripey blue and white t-shirt and often wears a red hat.

Pinocchio As a donkey With a long nose

Played by Eden Played by Robbie In shadow

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The Stromboli Brothers These are the mean puppeteers. When our performers put on black hats, they become the Stromboli Brothers. These brothers run a Donkey Puppet Show where they don’t treat the puppets very nicely.

Played by Robbie and Joy Played by Eden and Zannie

Donkey Puppets There are lots of donkey puppets in the story, some are given unique names and some are just part of a crowd. They are all performers in the Stromboli’s Puppet Show and are mistreated by the puppeteers.

Ball act Tight-rope walker Group of donkeys

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Fox and Cat The Fox and the Cat are mean tricksters who lie to Pinocchio and steal their bag of coins. You might find these characters scary.

The Busy Bee Islanders These are the inhabitants of Busy Bee Island who sing a song about working hard. They have colourful, stripey clothes.

School Children The children of Busy Bee Island. They go to school and visit Playland, where they are turned into puppet donkeys.

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The Teacher The teacher teaches the children on Busy Bee Island and Pinocchio. They have a stripey yellow and brown hat which matches the children’s clothes.

Played by Joy Played by Zannie

Whale This giant sea creature swallows Pinocchio and Geppetta whole. They have pointy teeth and might seem scary, but they do no long-term harm.

Whale from the outside X-ray vision

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The Settings Below are some pictures of the different settings (places) in the show.

Geppetta’s Workshop A pile of wooden boxes.

The Stromboli Puppet Show This has a big banner that reads “Stromboli’s Puppet Show”

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Busy Bee Island Busy Bee Island has a sky-blue house and stripey school.

The screens are placed in a line.

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Playland Playland has various pieces of play equipment such as a slide, swing,

trampoline and rope challenge. There is a banner that reads “Playland”.

The Sea Whenever we are in the sea, you will see the images in shadow and it will

be coloured blue.

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The Story Here we will tell you what happens in the story, including spoilers. We have highlighted any bits which you might find scary in red, but always remember that what’s happening on stage isn’t real, it is just part of a show.

The puppeteers will introduce themselves as the nice puppeteers, and let you know that when they put on their hats, they become the bad puppeteers, The Stromboli Brothers. They explain that they are going to tell you the story of Pinocchio.

The Blue Fairy (seen in shadow) delivers a bag of magic ‘bits and bobs’ to Geppetta’s workshop. Geppetta uses these bits to create the puppet Pinocchio.

Pinocchio comes alive and Geppetta and Pinocchio bond over soup.

Geppetta realises she doesn’t have any money to buy things for Pinocchio. She sells her suitcase of ‘precious things’ so she can buy Pinocchio a book. Geppetta sends Pinocchio off to school.

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On Pinocchio’s way to school, they come across a scary dog, who growls at Pinocchio and chases them away.

Just as Pinocchio reaches the sign that says “school”, it changes to read “Stromboli’s Puppet Show”. One of the bad puppeteers tells Pinocchio to come and watch the show. They ask for the book as payment for the show.

Pinocchio watches the Stromboli Puppet Show. Three puppet donkeys do special tricks which look a little dangerous, but the puppets are okay.

Pinocchio is offered a job sweeping up after the Puppet Show. The Stromboli puppeteers give Pinocchio a bag of coins as a reward.

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Pinocchio leaves the Stromboli Puppet Show and thinks about Geppetta. The Blue Fairy walks by as an old woman carrying a heavy bundle of sticks, but Pinocchio ignores her. Pinocchio sets off home to see Geppetta, however, on the way they meet the Cat and the Fox.

The Cat and the Fox trick Pinocchio into burying their bag of coins. The Cat and The Fox then put Pinocchio in a sack and tie the sack up, leaving with Pinocchio’s bag of coins.

The Blue Fairy ‘helicopters’ in and carries off the bag with Pinocchio inside.

In the meantime, Geppetta is worried about Pinocchio and gets on a boat to go looking for them. The boat sinks and is eaten by a whale. This is shown with shadow puppetry. This might be a little scary, but don’t worry - Geppetta is okay.

The Blue Fairy drops Pinocchio onto Busy Bee Island. There is a loud buzzing sound, which you might find alarming, but there aren’t any actual bees. The islanders sing a song about working hard. Pinocchio follows the busy bee children into school. Pinocchio is taught by the busy bee teacher and is given a book to take home.

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On their way home, Pinocchio meets the Blue Fairy who is pretending to be a frail old woman again.

The Blue Fairy, in her disguise, asks Pinocchio for help, but Pinocchio pretends they can’t help. Every time Pinocchio is selfish, their nose grows.

Eventually Pinocchio agrees to help the Blue Fairy. Pinocchio’s nose shrinks back to normal size and they drink tea with the Blue Fairy.

The next day, the Stromboli Brothers turn up and take Pinocchio and the busy bee children to Playland.

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At first Pinocchio has fun in Playland, but soon it turns into hard work and the Stromboli Brothers are mean to Pinocchio.

Pinocchio turns into a donkey puppet, along with the busy bee children. The mean puppeteers force the puppet donkeys to perform in their puppet show. We watch the puppet show from behind, as if we are backstage.

The Stromboli Brothers make the puppet donkeys perform until they are worn out. They then throw the puppet donkeys into the sea. We see the puppet donkeys sinking into the water as Pinocchio changes from a donkey to a puppet and back again. Some fish nibble at Pinocchio and Pinocchio has a human-form again. But then, Pinocchio is eaten by a big whale. The whale has sharp teeth, but don’t worry, Pinocchio isn’t hurt and is swallowed whole.

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It is spooky inside the whale’s tummy, but eventually Pinocchio meets Geppetta. They are happy to see each other and hug. Geppetta then covers the inside of the whale’s tummy with pepper, which makes the whale sneeze. Geppetta and Pinocchio are blown out of the whale high, high into the sky.

Eventually Geppetta and Pinocchio land back in Geppetta’s workshop, unharmed. We see that Pinocchio has finally turned into a real person!