What is a crankie?

Crankies are a form of visual storytelling with a rich and wonderful history. A crankie theatre is a box built with two spools inside. The spools have handles that can be ‘cranked’ to bring movement to an illustrated scroll that is wound onto the spools.

In the 19th Century, these devices had many names but were often referred to as moving panoramas. The term ‘crankie' was coined later by Peter Schuman of the Bread and Puppet Theatre, USA.

The Crankie is a wonderful device for storytelling. It offers a stream of moving images to delight and engage audiences young and old, whilst still allowing plenty of room for the imagination to play its vital part in co-creating the story. Crankies can be combined with shadow puppetry to help tell a story and create magical visual effects.