presents

Polly is a very expressive marionette. She has a priceless expression of large-eyed unassumed surprise while investigating her surroundings, chasing her teddy bear, swinging and playing butterfly, or dressing in mother's clothes with high-heeled shoes, necklace and handbag. Finally tired after her day of play, she curls up with her teddy on the floor, rubs her eyes and falls asleep. The puppeteer slips in with a blanket and carries them out. The performance is filled with humour, warmth, psychological sureness, and precision."

Gunilla Bergsten
UNT newspaper
Uppsala, Sweden

Polly has captured the hears of audiences of all ages around the globe. Her intense curiosity of the world about her reveals a wonder and amazement of everyday objects. And her very active imagination leads to frequent flights of fantasy. She is the toddler in us all. Through her eyes we rediscover an age of innocence and delight.

"I don't have words to describe the way I felt - observing this small person from inside and outside, but in stillness, as though everything around had been suspended, clarified, softened."

Lynn Brice Rooney
Discovery Theatre
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC

"An extraordinary experience in communication through mime. The puppet was so alive that you knew Polly was seeing, thinking, and responding. It really is a short course for anybody - to take very simple materials and explore with great variety, great delicacy."

George Latshaw, Editor
The Puppetry Journal

"Through the special magic of the marionette (string puppet) Arlyn and Luman Coad have captured the innocence and wonder of childhood as if it were a
butterfly in a jar."

Kate Zimmerman
Calgary (AB) Herald

Inspired by a wonderful mime interpretation of a small child, Coad Canada Puppets set about to create a show featuring a young girl. Inevitably puppet and mime character diverged and Poly became her own marionette "self."

"The highpoint (for me) was the latest glowing Coad Canada jewel. Polly is a young girl with toys, she is also a marionette, she doesn't speak but you know what she is thinking. Words fail, you must see it."

Lettie C. Schubert
San Francisco

"Because Polly does not speak, she has enthralled audiences from Japan, where she is called "Pollychan," to Croatia, where audiences began chanting her name during the performance to express their delight.

"Arthur Koestler, the modern philosopher once wrote there are three types of stories: there are the 'ha ha' stories that are humourous, the 'aha' stories that are of discovery, and the 'ahh' stories that are of the sublime. Polly is one of those precious and unique pieces which contains all three in a single story."

Ken Roberts
Richmond (BC) Public Library

Polly has been awarded a Citation of Excellence in the Art of Puppetry by the American Centre of l'Union Internationale de la Marionnette. Forty multi-national young jurors awarded her the Children's Jury Prize at the Pupteatra Internacia Festivalo in Zagreb.