Some children’s theatre shows can seem a little too keen to impress on parents that they are stretching their offspring’s brains, or instilling cultural values. So it was with faint apprehension that I lugged my five-year-old, Lucy, to a show with the word “Picasso” in the title. Even though it promised to “get messy”, might it end up being a bit of an art-history lecture?
Well, I needn’t have worried. This, after all, is the same venue that encouraged my child to throw brussels sprouts at a Christmas elf. The Oxford Playhouse’s tiny Burton Taylor studio has been rearranged to present a semi-circle of cushions (for children to sit on) and chairs behind (for the grownups). The story, devised and directed by Jake Oldershaw and based on a real-life incident involving the son of the photographer Lee Miller, is a sweet little tale about a sulky schoolboy who bonds with a Clouseau-ish, beret-wearing, bull-obsessed painter, spouting French and Spanish but very little English.
What makes the show, however, are the regular pauses in which to let the kids get on with mask-making, collages, and drawing – all of which pertain brilliantly to the story, and subliminally allow them to absorb some of Picasso’s artistic ideas. At one point, clear Perspex boards and white-paint pens are handed around; the children are then encouraged to press them against the faces of their parents and trace ears, noses, eyes – thereby channelling the spirit of Picasso’s multi-perspective portraiture.
Fortunately, things don’t get that messy – there’s no need for kids to wear special clothes, though it’s perhaps best they don’t go in their Sunday best. But the art is what makes this show special. Normally, Lucy’s favourite bit is when someone gets hit over the head or falls over; this time it was her scary bull mask. That’s got to be some kind of step forward.
• 7 April. Box office: 01308 424 204. Venue: Bridport Arts Centre. Then touring.
