The Journey Home Visual Story

A visual resource for children and young adults with Autism, Aspergers, Sensory Processing Disorder and associated

conditions. This resource is intended to help prepare any visitors for a new

experience and to help them to become familiar with the surroundings and situation.

The show The show lasts 40 minutes and there is no interval. There are two puppeteers in the show. The show is almost entirely recorded music which is played nearly the whole way through the show. There is a lot of shadow puppetry used in the show which is projected onto the backdrop of the set. In this guide, information that is particularly important, such as loud noises or people coming into the audience will be written in blue. The Story The Journey Home tells the story of Polar Bear who sets off in search of a new home when the ice starts melting. Travelling through storms, busy shipping lanes and across oceans, he picks up some exciting friends along the way. Meet all the animals on their adventure to find a new home; what else will they encounter on their journey of discovery and friendship? The Characters

Polar Bear. This is the first character that we see. At points in the performance you will also see a smaller version of the puppet.

Panda is the second character that you see. We also see a smaller version of this puppet at points in the story.

Orangutan is the third character that you see. He likes waving to the audience.

Elephant is the final character. At points in the story we see him as a shadow puppet projected onto the screen.

The two puppeteers also play the character of Architect/Engineer. When they are playing this character they wear hard hats.

We also see a few other puppets in the show such as seagulls and fish.

The Set When you come into the space, the set will look like this.

Throughout the show it changes as different items are brought on and moved around. The screen at the back is often used in the show to project shadow puppetry onto.

Play Notes The show begins with seagulls flying around the set and sometimes above the audience’s heads. Don’t worry they won’t touch you.

The Polar Bear enters from behind the Icebergs, and the lights on the backdrop change to blue. We see the Polar bear struggling to stand up on the slippery ice. It may get a bit loud here as people in the audience call out and laugh at him falling over.

A fish appears swimming around the Iceberg, which comes close to the audience and may fly above your head. The sun rises on the backdrop and as it warms up, the Iceberg begins to come apart, and the Polar Bear struggles between them.

The Polar Bear falls off the Iceberg and goes for a swim around, he might get close to you if you are sitting near the front. On the shadow screen, pictures of bamboo start to appear. Look out for the Panda who appears from behind!

We hear the noise of a plane and an image of one flies across the screen. The puppeteers come on with hard hats on and bring on extra set of buildings and wooden planks that show the development of the area. A small puppet of the Panda walks across one of these planks.

Large set pieces of boats are pushed onto the stage by the puppeteer, along with the sound of boat’s horns, which might be a bit loud.

A small boat with a little version of the Polar Bear comes on stage and the little Panda gets into the boat too.

We see this boat appear as a shadow puppet on the backdrop. The set pieces of boats and buildings are removed from the stage. The planks that were put into the Iceburgs’ are turned into trees by extra branches being bent out from the main trunk.

An Orangutan puppet comes on stage and swings around in the trees. We hear the Orangutan call out to another, and there is a call and response of them communicating with each other.

We hear a sound that sounds like a fly, (don’t worry there isn’t actually a fly in the room) and see the Orangutan puppet wafting something away from its face. The male puppeteer comes on stage in his hardhat with a kazoo, and we realise this is what the sound is.

The male puppeteer begins taking down the trees, and we realise the fly sound is actually a chain saw and he is cutting down the trees. As the planks are dropped to the floor there may be a loud noise, and the sound from the kazoo is quite strange. The Orangutan is left with no trees! He calls out to his friend but this time there is no response, and he is left all on his own!

The Polar Bear and Panda come on in the boat and rescue the Orangutan and he jumps in the boat too. As they move across the stage in the boat the Orangutan might wave to you- you can wave back if you like! An Elephant puppet comes on stage and begins drinking water through its trunk.

On the shadow screen we see two Elephants- a grown up and a baby. A target comes onto the screen and we see it aim at the big Elephant. The big Elephant falls over as it has been shot. We see the tusks being taken off the elephant.

The baby Elephant is left all alone. It might be a little noisy here as the Elephant is upset and calls out. The boat comes back on stage with the other 3 animals and they rescue the Elephant into the boat with them. The boat may come close or above the heads of the audience at the front.

The big boat leaves the stage and a picture of the world is projected onto the shadow puppet screen. A small version of the boat sails all the way around the outside of the world.

A seagull comes onto the stage and flies around, it may come over the heads of the audience sat at the front.

The large boat comes back on stage empty, and two of the planks are put back up as palm trees on the beach that we see projected on the shadow screen. The 4 puppet animals are placed on the Iceburgs on the stage.

An image of a Dodo appears on the shadow screen. The puppeteers speak on behalf of the Dodo, and tell the animals that they can go home just as soon as their habitats stop disappearing.

The sun sets on the shadow screen and this is the end of the show. The puppeteers will take a bow, and the audience will clap. You can clap too if you like.

We hope that you enjoyed the show.