THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL

2013 Premiere – JERWOOD DANCEHOUSE
The Little Match Girl has since toured extensively throughout the UK, Taiwan and China. Since 2014 the production has become a firm favourite at the Lilian Baylis SADLERS WELLS theatre for most Christmas seasons.
2020 – The Little Match Girl was filmed for Sadlers Wells Digital Stage.

 

direction/choreography Arthur Pita

composer Frank Moon

set and costume design Yann Seabra

lighting design Ed Yetton

ORIGINAL CASTCorey Annand, Valentina Golfieri, Angelo Smimmo, Kip Johnson, Karl Fagerlund Brekke, Faith Prendergast

A snowy stage sets the scene for an icy cold Christmas eve, where the little match girl paces the emptying streets, trying to sell her matches.

Cold, hungry and with just one final match flame to keep her warm, she sees a vision of her beloved grandmother. Leaving her troubled life behind, she is guided up into the night sky by her grandmother who takes her to the moon. Now, on a clear night, if you look closely, you might see the light of a shooting star, or is it a match burning brightly?

" The result is a gem”
“wonderfully inventive and poignant "
***** The Observer - Luke Jennings

" Pita has created, with its gentle mix of comedy, reality, magic and dreams, that seems like a perfectly natural thing to do. A very enjoyable flight of the imagination "
**** The Evening Standard - Lynsey Winship

" inventive and absorbing piece of family theatre”
“The Little Match Girl’s 60 minutes are packed with dance invention — lots of feathery footwork "
**** Financial Times - Louise Levene

" funny, emotive and effortlessly moving”
“satisfied sighs ring around the audience "
**** Time Out - Miriam Gillinson

" Everything in this story feels fresh minted, surprising and witty”
“it’s precisely the strangeness and the unexpected quirks and detours of Arthur Pita’s imagination that make this staging of The Little Match Girl such an unpredictable delight”
“Adults should beg, borrow or steal a child to take to this funny and moving production. Otherwise they should simply take themselves "
**** The Guardian - Judith Mackrell