Looking after toddlers is all about timings – try to get them napping too early or feed them too late and you’ll soon know about it. I still can’t work out the best slot for children’s theatre shows. 10am is a bit soon after breakfast and our 18-month-old, Hildy, will be on the rampage and reluctant to sit down. But 11am often means snacking or snoozing so it isn’t much better. As for the afternoon, she sometimes has a sleepy slump – and there’s picking up big sister from school to think about.
We turn up at the Unicorn theatre right before the 11am show of Planeta Ka, created by the Spanish company Imaginart. But we can still fit in a few minutes of fun in the foyer, where toddlers tumble around in a soft play area with squishy blocks shaped like liquorice allsorts, turtle cushions and giant dominoes. When we enter the auditorium and get comfy on floor cushions under dimmed lights, Hildy starts to yawn.
It’s a bit of an understatement to say she takes a while to warm up to the show. We’re sat before a stage featuring furry craters, sparkly tunnels and giant hills: this is Planeta Ka, which is being explored by a barefoot dancer (the pixie-ish Esther Huss, who alternates performances with Charlene Low). The dancer wobbles around on a crater, peers into the tunnels and slides down the hills. Hildy, meanwhile, beats her fists on the floor and wails.
But before too long she warms to the dancer who tests out each bit of the set in a 15-minute performance before inviting the audience to join her onstage for 25 minutes. The dancer observes, and gently supports, the children as they discover the space for themselves. In this respect, the show resembles Imaginart’s Sensacional, which was a big hit with Hildy’s sister, Aggie, a couple of years ago at the Unicorn. In that show, the children dressed up in white costumes and, under the guidance of a performer, ran around a stage decorated with colourful projections of flowers and insects. The kids were the show: watching them was as interesting as watching the projections.
This is Hildy’s second trip to the Unicorn. Last year we saw the gentle, reflective Scrunch (which ended with the toddlers ripping sheets of wrapping paper to bits). Today she has great fun running her hands through the plush, shimmering carpet that lines the hills of Planeta Ka, picking at the knotty bits of felt around the craters and tugging at the shaggy rugs and cushions on the floor. There’s plenty of independent play and she really takes to the dancer, while we – like the other parents and carers – join in as well as stand back.
The set is full of different textures to feel, while the lighting and the music offer all sorts of contrasts. It’s like a giant, more sophisticated version of those play mats that babies roll around on. A kind of sci-fi carpet showroom that you’re free to roam.
And, much too soon we think, it’s all over. Hildy has to be removed from the crawl-in cocoon that plays music and lights up. Socks and shoes go back on, we wave goodbye to the friendly dancer and find our pram in the foyer. Now … is it nap time or lunch time?
- Until 4 June 2015. Box office: 020-7645 0560. Unicorn theatre, London
