Alison Comfort with the The Merrie-Midgets puppet troop: Picturing Canterbury

Alison Comfort with the The Merrie-Midgets puppet troop. Greg Comfort in the 2018 Christchurch City Libraries Photo Hunt. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. CCL-PH18-080.tif.

The Merrie-Midgets were a puppet show hand-crafted, built and performed by the Comfort family of Christchurch from the mid 1950s until 1965. The show travelled the length of the South Island, along with appearances in Auckland and Wellington, and was a regular feature on Hays Roof during school holidays. Alison Comfort with characters from The Merrie-Midgets puppet troop; clowns Hooke and Snivy, and Goldilocks and the three bears.

Do you have any photographs of puppet shows in Christchurch? If so, feel free to contribute to our collection.

The Discovery Wall is a large interactive exhibition which allows several people to simultaneously explore images and stories of the history of the people and places of Christchurch. It is viewable on the ground floor of Tūranga, 60 Cathedral Square, Christchurch, New Zealand. Images displayed on the Wall can also be found on the Discovery Wall website.