AN ENTIRE festival of family and adult theatre comes to the Lighthouse in Poole when it holds its second bi-annual Puppet Festival until February 23.

We pulled a few strings and caught up with Vicky Andrews, co-founder and producer of Pickled Image, the company behind The Shop of Little Horrors, one of the Festival’s darker shows.

Using extraordinary puppets, masks and props, The Shop of Little Horrors on February 22-23, is a dark and twisted show with a wicked sense of humour, featuring a collection of macabre characters.

Vicky Andrews (co-founder of Pickled Image and producer of The Shop of Little Horrors) said: “We are really excited to be taking the show out on the road again. It went down a storm with audiences last year.

“The puppets have already freaked people out in our workshop, and we are confident they will have the desired effect of scaring people out of their wits during the show,” added Vicky.

The show is inspired less by the Muppets and more BBC comedies such as The League of Gentlemen and Open All Hours. With a certain sinister edge to the story, Vicky believes that puppets are well suited to darker material.

“With puppets you can create anything. There are no boundaries and they have a voodoo-like quality, which is perfect for creating dark material.”

Puppets have made a resurgence in film in recent years (Strings, Team America, Being John Malkovich), so could a popular show like The Shop of Little Horrors be translated to the big screen?

“Yes, that would be marvellous. We are waiting for someone like Steven Spielberg to give us a call as I write this. It has great appeal across the board.

“You don’t have to have an interest in puppetry per se to enjoy the show.

“Like all our productions the work contains elements that can be enjoyed by everyone – from atmospheric music and detailed set design, to puppet manipulation and dark comedy.”

The Puppet Festival features some slightly darker puppetry suitable only for over 12s, including a work in progress showing of The Puppet Monologues from Blind Summit on February 21.

The company were responsible for the giant puppetry at Danny Boyle’s Olympics Opening Ceremony.

This new piece in the making features monologues written by the likes of Jack Thorne (who featured in The Fades, Skins, This is England 86) and Alice Birch (Many Moons).

Elsewhere, families can try their hand at mask-making ahead of a production of Nobody Rides the Unicorn, while Three Colours allows youngsters to explore a vibrant sensory interactive world.

Nobody Rides the Unicorn on February 18 features superbly crafted puppets, original live music, beautiful sets, and moments of unexpected magic to tell a touching tale based on the book by Adrian Mitchell.

On February 20 Who’s Been Sitting in My Chair? brings a playful and musical interpretation of a well-known tale – with porridge and a family of bears and one, two, three chairs.

There are also workshops to try your hand at and a return visit of Charlie and Lola with their Extremely New Play – a magical mix of puppets, live action and music based on the much-loved books by Lauren Child.

For further details, times and ticket prices of all Puppet Festival events, see lighthousepoole.co.uk or telephone the box office on 0844 406 8666.