THE tale of a king cursed with ass's ears proved a hit for two local primary schools on a day of local theatre.

Loughton's Hereward and Thomas Willingale schools were invited by their colleagues at Debden Park High for a day of magical puppetry.

Theatre of Widdershins performed their original tale The King's Got Donkey's Ears at the Willingale Road secondary school to an engrossed audience.

The puppetry group's show was put on as part of the Essex on Tour scheme which promotes local theatre.

Debden Park artistic director Seb Ventura said: “We have put on performances before for the local community but we didn't get that many people so we invited the local primary schools to come at a reduced rate.

“Because they're local it meant they didn't have to travel to the West End for theatre. They could just walk to the school.

“It was great to see the local schools watching theatre. Pupils from both schools really enjoyed the show.”