A Burnaby puppet-theatre group is appealing for help in recovering a trailer filled with show equipment after it was stolen overnight on Tuesday.

Elizabeth Elwood and her husband, Hugh, have been presenting their Elwoodettes Marionettes shows for 16 years, using marionettes and sets they hand-crafted themselves. The trailer contained all of the equipment for their travelling shows, including painted backdrops, two travelling theatres, and three marionettes.

Elwood told the Straight the loss of the equipment might force the company to shut down.

“We can’t perform without our theatres,” she said. “If we had to sink hours of time and money into it again to start up again, that’s a really tough call. We may have to close down....Right now we’re pretty depressed about it right now.”

The missing trailer is a single-axle white Wells Cargo, with licence-plate number 59444W. Its vehicle identification number is 1WC200E12X4036394, its decal number is 00035237, and its registration number is 0012772.