diff --git a/wagtail/wagtailsearch/backends/elasticsearch.py b/wagtail/wagtailsearch/backends/elasticsearch.py
index c47427d35..7b301442e 100644
--- a/wagtail/wagtailsearch/backends/elasticsearch.py
+++ b/wagtail/wagtailsearch/backends/elasticsearch.py
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 from __future__ import absolute_import
 
+import string
+import json
+
 from django.db import models
 
 from elasticsearch import Elasticsearch, NotFoundError, RequestError
@@ -8,7 +11,6 @@ from elasticsearch.helpers import bulk
 from wagtail.wagtailsearch.backends.base import BaseSearch
 from wagtail.wagtailsearch.indexed import Indexed
 
-import string
 
 
 class ElasticSearchQuery(object):
@@ -105,6 +107,9 @@ class ElasticSearchQuery(object):
             }
         }
 
+    def __repr__(self):
+        return json.dumps(self.to_es())
+
 
 class ElasticSearchResults(object):
     def __init__(self, backend, query, prefetch_related=[]):