A new play looks at the life of Caroline Crachami who at under two feet tall became the talk of the town in the early 19th century
We tend to think of the idea of sudden celebrity as a phenomenon that began with the mass media. But it’s always been human nature to look for ‘the next big thing’.
For fashionable London society in 1824 the talk of the town was an eight year old child called Caroline Crachami because she was just under two feet tall. Her size made her as fascinating to the medical profession as she was to the general public, both during her short life - and after her death. Her skeleton is still part of the collection at the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.
Now in a new play, The Smallest Person, the Trestle Theatre Company use their trademark masks and puppets to tell Caroline’s story. Judi Herman spoke to the play’s director Emily Gray, and to Gaby Wood, whose book,The Smallest of All Persons Mentioned in the Records of Littleness, is about the life of Caroline Crachami.
The Trestle Theatre's production of The Smallest Person is on tour until 3 December. See their website for further details
The Smallest Of All Persons Mentioned In The Records Of Littleness by Gaby Wood, Profile Books, ISBN 1861970889
