A baby sits on the floor, surrounded by a comforting pile of cushions, books and soft toys gurgling and smiling widely, creating a sweet, if ordinary, moment. But what happens when you take this scene out of the domestic space and put it on stage? Can a baby alone make for riveting theatre?
These are the questions at the heart of one of the Edinburgh fringe’s most surprising productions. Come Look at the Baby puts a seven-month-old on stage for half an hour every morning, propped up on their Granny’s lap, and invites an audience to simply sit there and watch.
Aside from the few props on stage to make the baby comfortable, the show has no other direction or narrative. Some audiences could come to find the baby awake and playing, at other times baby could be asleep. For the first show, the baby simply beamed out at the audience for the full half hour.
The show’s creators say that while the show initially raised questions from parents and children’s campaigners, Come Look at the Baby is “not in any way a gimmick”.
“The show is a confluence of two things” explained co-director Hannah Madsen. “We have always been interested in this idea of anti-theatre, discussing what’s watchable on stage and how little you can have on stage that still grips people.
“But this show is also about how children are represented in society and a commentary on how people treat babies in public. If you’re in a café or a restaurant, people just stare at other people’s babies. In some cases people will go straight up to somebody else’s baby and start talking to it. I’m not sure if that behaviour is OK or not and that’s the kind of thing we’re talking about here.”
They say the show is much more about the audience, and the audience’s responses, than any of the action that goes on on-stage. While the baby appears more than comfortable with the attention, Madsen said they had noticed how many people in the crowd laugh nervously in the first few minutes of the show, and shuffle about as if unsure of how to act.
“It’s called Come Look at the Baby but really it’s much more like ‘come be looked at by a baby’. People tend to forget themselves after a while and become much less nervous about how to behave, they just enter into the experience.”
The show also raises ethical questions about putting a baby on public display. One child’s rights campaigner contacted the theatre company to complain about the show, but after realizing the premise behind it was focused more on the audience than just making a spectacle of a baby, withdrew their objection.
To protect the baby’s identity, both their name and their gender, and the name of their granny, are not being made public. The audience will also be watched closely at all times during the show.
Madsen also pointed to the statistic that every week in the UK around 10,000 applications are sent off to child model agencies every week, with parents desperate for their offspring to become the next face of nappies, home insurance or formula milk. One London agency said it received 38,000 applications alone, but that 75% were rejected outright, and she said any objections around the show had highlighted the double standards society has to using babies in art and advertising.
“I think this is one of the most honest shows at the Fringe,” added Madsen. “Babies can’t act and I think that honesty does makes the audience connect more. It’s a very true performance, and when baby smiles and grins at you it does feel lovely. It wasn’t necessarily intended to be a relaxing show but that’s how it has come out.”
Sophie Duker, 26, who was in the audience of Come Look at the Baby, agreed: “I’m not someone who would just go up to any baby in public or stare at any baby that goes past, but I thought this was wonderful,” she said.
“It’s interesting, because nothing happens and you are just looking at a baby, it feels almost like a meditation. At first you are struck by how cute the baby is but then you start thinking about what’s going to happen to the baby when it’s older, you start thinking about yourself, your own life. It just makes you really contemplate all the little things.”
