A Ladder to the Stars

A Ladder to the Stars opens at the Traverse Theatre on Tuesday 8 December and runs through to Wednesday 23 December, part of the venue's Christmas season. It's a children's show performed by Visible Fictions, aimed at the 3-6 age group and their families, with BSL interpretation on stage.

The story starts with a little girl's birthday wish to dance with the stars. When a twinkling star in the night sky hears it, the moon, the sun, the wind and the rain dream up a plan to make it happen: they find a magic seed, plant it in the girl's garden and nurture it until it grows into a magnificent tree reaching all the way to the stars. It's a journey that takes a hundred years, and the girl grows up to be an old woman who still remembers what it was like to be young and carefree. The production is told through a mix of puppetry, original music, light and storytelling, and is described as a heartfelt and humorous story of what happens when the universe hears your dreams. It won the 2024 Best Children's Theatre award at the Scottish Theatre Awards.

Behind it is a full creative team: Simon Puttock wrote the piece, which Dougie Irvine adapted and directed. Daniel Padden provided the original music, with set and costume design by Becky Minto, lighting by Grahame Gardner and puppets by Ailie Cohen. The show runs in Traverse 2, at 10 Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED, with tickets priced from £8 to £14.50.