The Little Match Girl at the Wardrobe Theatre is the first production from Dot & Ethel Theatre, a new Bristol company from designer Harriet de Winton and director Heidi Vaughan.

Their stated aim is “to bring fresh and imaginative experiences to our audience – asking big questions, breaking rules, revealing accidents and adding dramatic delight to everyday life”.

The dramatic delight of this show started in the White Bear below the theatre, as the two actresses introduced themselves in character to their young audience before the doors to upstairs opened.

Adapted from the story by Hans Christian Anderson, this is thankfully for the two- and three-year-old crowd not the tale which ends with our protagonist dying from cold in a doorway.

Instead, The Little Match Girl at the Wardrobe Theatre uses a combination of mime, storytelling and puppetry to create an imaginative world where scrunched up pieces of newspaper are young girls, and grandma rides in a hot air balloon and climbs Everest.

There is some lovely interplay between actors and audience. My own two-year-old daughter was asked for a magic word to open one box on stage (“Tea!”, her own version of please), which was designed beautifully by de Winton with oversize matchboxes containing a cornucopia of delights.

Each audience member was also given a paper straw so they could create wind when needed, not that toddlers need any encouragement to do this.

There wasn’t much of a story here, but it didn’t matter. This was a treat for young theatre goers and an example of the power of imagination and memory.

The Little Match Girl is at the Wardrobe Theatre until December 22. For tickets and more information, visit www.thewardrobetheatre.com/#/the-little-match-girl/.