Steve Pratt talks to actor Stewart Cairns about bringing a flat cartoon hero called Stanley to life.

GETTING to know his recent co-stars has been a tricky business for actor Stewart Cairns as they don't have a lot to say for themselves - they're puppets. Having brought mouse Stuart Little to life in a stage show, he's now working flat out to bring the hero of another children's book to life, Flat Stanley.

Adapted by York-based writer Mike Kenny from Jeff Brown's much-loved book, this tells of a boy who's only half an inch thick after a large bulletin-board falls on him. At first, it's fun being flat - being posted to his friend in California and being flown as a kite, but the novelty wears off and Stanley begins to wish he was like other boys and girls.

Stanley is being brought to life through both Cairns the actor and Cairns the puppeteer. "Any new puppet is a challenge because you have to get to know how it works and how it moves, and what it's capable of doing," he says.

"He's larger than most puppets and, because he's flat, he only moves in a particular way. Rehearsals have been a lot about the mechanics because it's a big part of how we tell the story.

"A puppet is a great way of telling a story because it's magic, but it's also real and happening there and then, which is always a special thing. And there's the spirit of an actor behind it."

Cairn's approach is to treat the puppet, whether it's Stuart Little or Flat Stanley, as if it's a real person, and because of that he tends to get attached to his co-stars, emotionally and well as physically.

"The whole life comes from you. I used to get very upset if a theatre stored Stuart upside down. I was very protective of him," he says.

"There was a reserve Stuart, another puppet in case Stuart got broken, but I didn't really bond with him. You build up so much belief that you get quite attached to them. If you don't believe it, the audience won't."

Cairns trained as an actor - at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama - rather than a puppeteer. He's had no formal puppeteering training although working with Polka Theatre has provided him with valuable experience.

"I first got into children's theatre before I left drama school, in a young people's theatre," he says. "Children are a fantastic audience, you always know what they're thinking. They have such a vivid imagination. The best audiences are family audiences, with parents and children. They can go home and talk about the story, that's when it's at its best."

Flat Stanley is a co-production between West Yorkshire Playhouse and Polka Theatre, for whom he's worked as an actor-puppeteer before.

"I'd read the book Flat Stanley when I was a child and knew it was about a boy who was posted as an envelope and was as flat as a kite," he says.

"A lot of people remembered projects at school where they made Flat Stanley and sent him through the post. When I was cast, I got the book to remind myself of the story."

He came to the production from a seven-month tour of Stuart Little, about the adventures of a mouse born to human parents. "I always said my job was to get ignored for two hours on stage," says Cairns. "It's good for an actor to work with a puppet because it's absolutely about surrendering your ego. It takes you back to the core of what acting is about - telling a story."

He thinks that Kenny's adaptation will not only please those familiar with the book but also find a broader audience through the playwright additions. "He's brought in the element of the parents, how they deal emotionally with a child who's different. It's quite nice for children to see it's tough for mum and dad to run the home, and how his brother deals with it," he says.

Cairns himself, not coming from a very strong theatre-going family, didn't see a lot of theatre growing up in Scotland. His earliest experiences were seeing his brother in school plays.

"I didn't intend ending up doing puppetry. I discovered I had a bit of a flair for it and people used me for it, which led to a diversity of work I'd never have had otherwise," he says.

* Flat Stanley: Courtyard Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, until January 13. Tickets 0113-213770.