'Clown' comes to the circus in Walthamstow this Christmas
Friday 18th September 2026
Landing in the heart of Walthamstow this winter, The Revel Puck Circus returns to E17 with its biggest Winter Festival yet, headlined by CLOWN, a brand-new stage adaptation, and first circus production, of Sir Quentin Blake’s beloved children’s picture book.
Running from 3rd December to 3rd January, audiences can step inside the magical Little Top tent at Walthamstow Central, bringing live circus experience within easy reach of the Waltham Forest community.
For younger audiences and families, morning and early afternoons across the festival belong to CLOWN. Blake’s book tells its story entirely through pictures about a little toy clown that gets thrown into the bin and goes on an adventure looking for a new home. It’s a story about hope, friendship, resilience, and kindness.
The production stays close to that spirit: the story itself will not change, though a small amount of language has been added to help carry the narrative for its youngest audiences.
Audiences can wonder at aerial performers, world-class acrobatics, hilarious physical comedy, costume puppets, and Pierrot-style clowning.
Upon hearing about the production, Sir Quentin Blake said: “I am delighted Clown will be brought to new audiences in this unique form by The Revel Puck Circus. In fact, I am appropriately speechless.”
Founder of The Revel Puck Circus, Luke Hallgarten, said: “I’ve loved Quentin Blake’s CLOWN book ever since I was a child; it was definitely an influence on me. When we got the green light from Sir Quentin Blake to adapt his story into a show, it was a real pinch-me moment. If ever there was an art form that could be described as hand-drawn, circus would be it.”
CLOWN will also welcome school and nursery groups throughout December, with dedicated weekday performances for Nursery to Year 6. Because the story is carried primarily through circus skills and physical storytelling, it offers a rare classroom resource; teachers can use it to build sequencing, prediction, and inference skills alongside the book itself.
Ten per cent of tickets for every performance are reserved at £3, on a no-questions-asked basis, for local people who might otherwise find the cost of a trip to the theatre out of reach, distributed in part through local community organisations across the borough.
All performances are semi-relaxed as standard, with level access throughout, wheelchair spaces and free carer seats in every show, and dedicated SEND performances; check the website for details.
For The Revel Puck Circus, this homecoming caps a year that saw their first UK tour visiting 14 locations around England and Wales, plus a critically-acclaimed run at Edinburgh Fringe.
See the show at: The Revel Puck Circus Little Top, Walthamstow Town Square Gardens, E17 7JH
3rd December 2026 to 3rd January 2027
CLOWN: 11am and 1pm, Thursdays to Sunday
See the show at: The Revel Puck Circus Little Top, Walthamstow Town Square Gardens, E17 7JH
3rd December 2026 to 3rd January 2027
CLOWN: 11am and 1pm, Thursdays to Sunday
Tickets are on sale now, with previews on 3rd and 4th December with 30% off. Visit https://www.tixr.com/groups/revelpuckcircus for tickets or email [email protected] for more information.