Award-winning Roustabout Theatre, creators of Luna and One Small Step, is bringing its interactive, improvised family show, The Great Big Story Mix Up, to the Downs, Bristol on 11 September at 11am & 3pm.
Aimed at ages three years and older, the production promises to put children’s imaginations at the heart of the action, using suggestions, interruptions, and wild ideas from its young audience to create never-before-seen fairy tales, right in front of your eyes. The most exciting thing about it is that, because it is improvised, no two performances can ever be the same!
“It’s all about being surprised,” laughs performer Robin Hemmings. “I might be playing a hideous troll one moment, then a child in the audience will blow the Horn of Song and the troll will suddenly have to rap about what he eats for breakfast. Then another child will change the scene, and I’ll be scrabbling to find the right costume to play a beautiful princess. We all have to think so quickly!”
Putting children in creative control is something that is very dear to director and performer Toby Hulse’s heart. “We’re all familiar with the idea that children say the strangest things. I don’t believe that they are strange, rather that they see the world in new and wonderfully unexpected ways. Now imagine a play led entirely by those ways of thinking! It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.”
“The last year has been difficult for children in so many ways,” adds performer Shaelee Rooke. “Being away from school and their friends, and having to do so much online, has left little room for wild imagination and play. The Great Big Story Mix Up celebrates what children do best – coming up with daft ideas – and enables them to become creative collaborators in a wonderful world of silliness and story. Actually, that’s something we could all do with more of.’
For more information and to book tickets, visit theatreorchard.org.uk