Mrs Armitage on Wheels – Purcell Room, Southbank Centre

Picture: Dan Tsantilis

Mrs Armitage on Wheels continues at the Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, London until 21 February 2026.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

Like most shows of this sort for very young children, this one is full of charm and wit. It relies, moreover, on most of the young audience and their grown-ups being familiar with Quentin Blake’s book. Thus, it feels homely.

The titular Mrs Armitage (Gillian Kirkpatrick) is a cheerful inventor living in a shed with her dog, Breakspear (Thomas Walton). The episodic story celebrates creativity, imagination, kindness, recycling and the strength of community if everyone helps everyone else.

The songs (Jessie Maryon Davies) are jolly. “The right sort of horn will warn” is very funny and Kirkpatrick makes sure we hear every word. Her warm RP works well in the spoken dialogue too. And there’s a lovely moment when Walton, puppeting the dog effectively, howls in harmony so that it sounds like a clarinet continuo.

James Keningale is strong in all the other parts – various visitors who call on Mrs Armitage and he does the quivering hedgehog family very nicely. He is good at accents too.

There’s nothing patronising about this show. Along the way children are taught who invented Tupperware and the meaning of ‘agoraphobic”.

Developed in association with Eagle Eye and Little Angel Theatre, Mrs Armitage on Wheels is directed and adapted by Samantha Lane, with set and costume design by Ryan Dawson Laight and puppetry design and direction by Maia Kirkman-Richards.

Susan Elkin