[1][2] The small, 100-seat theatre is home to a collection of approximately 1,000 marionettes that featured in puppet shows during Britain's school holiday seasons.

[3] Theatre founder Eric Bramall (born in Wallasey, Merseyside, England) began putting on touring puppet shows in 1946, with the help of his mother.

From 1951 to 1956, Bramall performed increasingly elaborate puppet shows each summer in a temporary theatre built onto an existing bandstand in Colwyn Bay, North Wales.

The Harlequin was built in eleven weeks, using wood, glass, and local stone salvaged from derelict servants' quarters which had occupied the site.

[4] Since 1958 Bramall's marionette skills had been regularly featured on a children's television show; he and co-puppeteer Chris Somerville were subsequently given a weekly 15-minute puppet programme on BBC Wales, which continued until 1984.