No Strings visited the southern coast of Sri Lanka a year after the 2004 tsunami, with a project aimed at helping children there who had been traumatised by the disaster to feel less anxious.

Not understanding why it happened, these children, many of whom had lost family members, were living in dread of another tsunami hitting their coastline.

The programme, a tale of two animals determined to find out why the tsunami happened, took the form of a shadow puppet film, introduced by a real life Story Teller, and in which real hand puppet forms of the main characters interact.

The Great Grandfather Whale

Laloo is a cormorant who comes to the aid of a young, orphaned sea turtle, Tala. His little sister Nila has stayed in her shell since the tsunami struck, refusing all food, and Tala is worried about her. Together, they decide that the best way to help her get over her trauma is to find out exactly why it happened, and how they can ensure that they and their friends will be safe should it happen again.

During their journey, they come across various animal characters who supply different pieces of information about the tsunami, until they finally meet the Great Grandfather Whale, the oldest and wisest creature in the sea. The whale will take them to the edge of the tectonic plate near Sumatra, and show them the vast rift where one plate slid under the other, displacing the massive amount of water that caused the terrible waves.

LALOO

Um, excuse us, Madame Octopus, we are here to find out about the tsunami. Can you help us?

MADAME OCTOPUS

Oh, the tsunami. Very bad... very bad! I can tell you this, just before the first wave hit, all the water suddenly left the shore. I was left in a little puddle barely big enough to hold me. It was about ten minutes after that that the wave came. So my advice to you little turtle is if the water suddenly leaves the shore, run away.

SCHOOL OF FISH

Run away!

Run away!

MADAME OCTOPUS

And land creatures like yourself should run away from the water and up a hill to higher ground.

SCHOOL OF FISH

Run away and up a hill.

Run away and up a hill.

TALA

We need to remember that.

LALOO

Right!

LALOO SWIMS UP AS THE SCREEN FADES. HE APPEARS NEXT TO THE STORYTELLER.

STORY TELLER

Alright, what does Tala need us to remember?

IF A CHILD ANSWERS WE WILL FOLLOW THE CHILD'S LEAD AND PROMPT HIM OR HER. IF NOT, LALOO WILL ANSWER.

LALOO

Remember, if all the water suddenly leaves the shore a tsunami might be coming.

THE STORYTELLER HOLDS UP A CARD WITH THE NEXT DIAGRAM. IT SHOWS A PICTURE OF THE WATER LEAVING THE SHORE.

STORYTELLER

If you see that happen, what should you do?

IF A CHILD DOES NOT ANSWER, LOALOO DOES.

LALOO OR CHILD

Run away from the water and up to higher ground

STORYTELLER

Good.

HE GLANCES AT LALOO.

LALOO

Oh.

LALOO DIVES DOWN AS THE STORYTELLER WAVES HIS HAND AND THE SCREEN FADES UP ON THE PREVIOUS SCENE. BY THIS TIME THE SCHOOL OF FISH IS SWIMMING AROUND IN A MOST UNSCHOOOL- LIKE FASHON.... ALL IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS AND AT DIFFERENT TIMES.

MADAME OCTOPUS

Fishes, fishes, no, no, no... Where's your school? Together! Together! One, two, three, four, turn, two, three, four... Together!

TALA

Madame Octopus...Madame Octopus, can you tell us what caused the tsunami and where it came from?

MADAME OCTOPUS (very harried)

I'm sorry I don't know the answer to that. The only one in the entire ocean with enough knowledge to tell you that is Great Grandfather Whale, the oldest and wisest creature in the sea.

TALA

Where can we find him?

No Strings in Sri Lanka

The little boy standing up to make a formal thank you lost every member of his family to the tsunami. Aged just 12, he thinks it's a good idea to try and help people understand why it happened, because a lot of the children he knows in the Hambantota region in southern Sri Lanka are frightened. They think it will happen to them again. Would they know what to do if it did? "Not really."

Did the children enjoy the show? There is a great nodding of heads. Did they learn some new things? Yes. Some remain unclear that a tsunami is made up of several waves. Many continue to believe that it was caused by the weather, and live in dread of storm clouds arriving on the horizon. Others feel they were being punished.

Johnie McGlade and former leading Muppet artists Kathy Mullen and Michael Frith, visit 10 schools and organisations in the Hambantota, Matara and Galle region alongside CRS, the Catholic Relief Service.

Some of these schools stand at the edge of stunning palm tree-bordered stretches of sand, but the beaches are still empty at playtime a year on. There are fabulous donated computer suites in rebuilt classrooms which would never have been there before the tsunami, but fear of the sea is raw.

The show is a unique interactive experience. Much of the action takes place within a shadow puppet film which is projected onto a large screen. As well as shadow puppets, the two main characters, Tala and Laloo, have also been made into hand puppets. Worked by Sri Lankan actors (trained in a very brief matter of days and hiding behind the screen), they shoot up directly out of the action, or so it seems, to appear at the top of the screen, so that the characters transform from shadow to hand puppets at regular intervals. The effect on children is dramatic, especially the first time it happens when they have no idea they're there.

Having popped up, they interact with the Storyteller, a third Sri Lankan actor who talks to the children throughout and explains what is happening.

"What we've learnt is that many of the children who experienced the tsunami fear there will be another one, that they will lose more family members, or be separated from their family and left alone," says Kathy Mullen.

"They don't understand why it happened, and we've learnt that many still don't know that there can be warning signs and there are ways to protect themselves," she adds. "Our hope is that equipping them with this knowledge will greatly reduce anxiety, and also increase the safety level of children in a tsunami-prone area."