Little Angel Theatre has partnered with theatre director Ian Nicholson to stream an adaptation of Jon Klassen’s picture book I Want My Hat Back.

The performance will be broadcast on Little Angel Theatre’s YouTube channel on Easter Monday, 13 April at 11am BST (6am EDT) and will be available for 14 days afterwards. It will be free to access and is aimed at children aged 3-6.

Nicholson will be directing and performing the show from home during lockdown, with set designed by Samuel Wilde and music by Jim Whitcher.

I Want My Hat Back is the first in a trilogy of books by Canadian author and illustrator Jon Klassen. The mischievous tale follows a bear who’s hat is gone, and he wants it back. Patiently and politely, he asks the animals he comes across, one by one, if they have seen it. The book was a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book of 2011, and was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway medal when it was published in the UK in 2013.

The show has been created remotely, with Nicholson, Wilde and Whitcher communicating across Zoom and WhatsApp over 200 miles apart to discuss storyboarding, prototypes for the puppets and music. The finished set was then posted by Wilde to Nicholson’s home, from where he will perform the show.