THE Bear and the Butterfly, with puppetry and beautiful storytelling, tells a tale of love, loss and friendship when this charming theatre production comes to the Grand Theatre, Clitheroe, next weekend.

Based on the original story by Gordon Poad, and produced by Theatre Hullaballo, the grumpy old bear’s life changes when he hears the munching and crunching of a bright green caterpillar in the undergrowth.

They then become great friends as caterpillar hears heroic tales of bear’s younger life catching fish, raising cubs and being big, strong and fierce.

But one day, however, caterpillar stops munching and becomes very sick.

The angry bear fears he will lose his friend but, as if by magic, caterpillar grows and from the leaves emerges a dazzling butterfly.

“The show is about changing friendship, the changing seasons, growing up and ultimately about life cycles and how we deal with the loss of someone we love,” said Bear and Butterfly artistic producer, Miranda Thain.

“It is a gentle show and, although audience members young and old are very moved by the story, the fact that the show ends with another caterpillar appearing in the spring to make friends with bear means that we all leave knowing that bear will have a happy ending.”

The story is told by three performers – Bear, Butterfly and a live musician on stage with a cello.

Miranda added: “Small caterpillar and butterfly puppets are used as well as one larger butterfly puppet to represent the character’s transformation from a caterpillar and it really is quite magical.

“There’s lots of paraphernalia on stage, covering bear’s tree, which is reminiscent of Wallace and Gromit.

“When we toured Bear and the Butterfly last time children and grown-ups laughed and cried at this lovely story and we’ve had loads of letters and pictures from audiences telling us about their favourite bits of the story,” she said.

Meantime, on Saturday, the Saltmine Theatre Company present an adaptation of the festive classic The Nutcracker.

On Christmas Eve, Clara receives an extra special present with the instruction to keep it very safe.

But when her little brother breaks the precious gift, she wonders if she can ever forgive him.

Clara’s determination to fix the Nutcracker whisks her away to the Land of Sweets, where caramel rivers are lined with lollipop trees, raindrops fall like hundreds and thousands.

Clara must figure out the answer to the great, big, sugary question: Can mending something on the outside fix what is truly broken?

Ben Kessell, the director of Nutcracker, said: “Our production, while very much inspired by the original story, puts a bit of a different spin on the classic Nutcracker.

“There’s all the old favourites like the Mouse King and the Sugarplum Fairy, but we’ve introduced some new characters too.

“There’s a lot of laughs, but there’s a really nice Christmas message of love and joy for the whole family to enjoy.”

The Nutcracker, Saturday, January 6 (2pm) and Bear and the Butterfly, Saturday, January 13 (3.30pm), the Grand Theatre, Clitheroe. Details from 01200 421599 or www.thegrandvenue.co.uk