Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann, a Frankfurt ‘medical man of the lunatic asylum’, wrote and illustrated The Struwwelpeter (ShockHeaded Peter) more than 150 years ago because he couldn’t find anything on the shelves to fire the imagination of his children.

SHOCKHEADED PETER is the collective nightmare of the visionary direction and design team of Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch (co-founders of London’s Improbable Theatre) and the underworld’s favourite cabaret act, The Tiger Lillies, led by the bizarre and beautiful falsetto of Martyn Jacques. Set in a distorted Victorian toy theatre, SHOCKHEADED PETER evokes a lost world of theatrical illusion-a music box spinning out of control; an advent calendar with a different lunatic waiting behind every door.

Olivier Award 2002 winners
Shockheaded Peter – Winner Best Entertainment
Shockheaded Peter – Winner Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical (Martyn Jacques)