Taking children to the theatre always feels like an adventure. How can you create that spirit and excitement for lockdown audiences stuck at home watching on a mobile? The company Can’t Sit Still have cleverly adapted one of their past productions, turning it into more than just a film of a stage show and adding a handful of activities to keep young ones busy before they even start watching.
I round up seven-year-old Hilda, and 10-year-old Aggie humours us by joining in, though it’s really designed for those aged two to seven. We’re asked to make confetti and print some colouring sheets from the company’s website, including a tiara to be drawn in pink, a car to turn blue and a ticket that Aggie, still in Halloween mood, makes blood red. Next, we build a den in which to watch the show, guided by Can’t Sit Still’s how-to video, which is presented – genius idea, this – not by a grownup but a friendly five-year-old, Thea. We drape blankets around the bunk bed, collect our box of confetti, printouts and some brightly coloured objects we’ve been instructed to gather, then crawl in to watch the show on my phone.
Armed with our props – and expecting a cacophony akin to the company’s uproarious Oh No, George! – it takes a little while to adapt to the gentler nature of this show. “Why do we need to be in a den?” asks Hilda. The show has its own answers: our snug surroundings are mirrored by the sheltered stage set designed by Laura McEwen. Building a den helps make a confined space comfy, and we first meet the pair of barefoot performers bursting out of a crate, which is fitting for this pandemic year of living in a box.
But Catherine Boot’s production is more concerned with how individuals can be boxed in by gender bias. The clowning duo are played by real-life couple Jake England-Johns and Hobbit Humphrey, whose decision to raise a gender-neutral child was featured in a BBC documentary last year. The pair wanted to create a bubble for their child to be who they are, and the show does something similar, as each performer plays with butterfly wings and an action figure.
Thanks to Johnny Luu’s imaginative animations, it feels like this half-hour show itself is threatening to burst out of the screen. Musical notes drift up from composer Harriet Riley’s marimba (an entrancing instrument for kids), motion lines ripple around the box as it begins to spin and a brightly coloured graphic equaliser frames the action and pulses to the music. Sophisticated camerawork often keeps us within the semi-circle set as if we’ve been dropped into a big top.
It’s equal parts theatre, comic book and circus – a hybrid unlike any children’s show we’ve seen. Accessibility is integrated into the design, too, rather than being an add-on. Sign Supported English and creative captioning is used, although the piece is mostly wordless.
The duo’s ease with each other is palpable as their bodies form slides and tunnels and they perform upside-down piggybacks and the splits. “They’re going to fall off!” Hilda squeals as the couple clamber on top of a pile of boxes. But rather than encouraging her to dive around her own room immediately, the show keeps her rapt throughout, until the stage and our den are covered with confetti.
Available online 13-15 November as part of the Magic and Mayhem festival from Pound Arts Centre in Corsham. Further online dates.
