There is no dearth of entertainment in their lives. We make theatre for the very young as a medium worth its name — work for children from eighteen months to five years, experienced through the senses.
There is no dearth of entertainment in their lives. We make theatre for the very young as a medium worth its name — work for children from eighteen months to five years, experienced through the senses.
Since 2012
There is no dearth of entertainment in their lives. We make it as a medium worth its name.
Why theatre for the very young
Theatre for young children need not be about entertaining them; there is no dearth of entertainment in their lives. We think of it instead as a medium worth its name — one that works at multiple levels for a child as it does for an adult.
Theatre only works if we take our audiences to be able to question and think through everything we produce for them. To treat children as beings who need to be “explained” things, rather than as equal partners in a conversation, is to patronise them.
Three plays
Work for children from eighteen months to five years. Audiences are small and sit close, on the floor; afterwards the children are invited in to handle the material themselves.
Loom and thread
We catch a story only in the middle. Three performers weave and unweave on hand looms built for the stage — a play that shows and lets a story be heard, rather than tells one.
Steel utensils
An ode to the everyday — not only the routine and the ordinary, but that which accommodates the special in the mundane. Steel as a sensory medium of sight and sound.
Kaala chana
The bend of a road and the flow of a river: everything is always in transformation, and the possibility of change is already built into what exists. Our first play.
What a performance is like
Twenty to twenty-five children at a time, each with one parent or guardian. Never more.
On the floor, close to the playing area. There is no stage between the children and the performers.
Twenty-eight to thirty minutes, with no interval.
Children may move, make noise, or turn away. None of that is a problem. The play does not depend on holding their attention by force.
The children are invited into the performance area to handle the material — the chana, the thread, the steel. We take that as their feedback on the play.
Previously performed at
Bends & Flows opened at Ranga Shankara in July 2012, as part of the AHA! International Theatre Festival for Children — the first full-fledged theatre production for toddlers to be staged in India.
Theatre for Children Festival
Bengaluru
Arts Festival
Goa
Festival of Theatre for Young Audiences
Delhi
Bengaluru
Made in collaboration with
What parents say
We're just looking for activities that are screen free. It was so sensory, and so calming. That's the first time she has sat for 28 minutes straight.Parent of a 17-month-old
A beautiful display without even saying much — and engaging children in such a subtle way. Equal importance for both children and adults.Parent, Bengaluru
She had rapt attention throughout the entire 30 minutes — for the first time ever.Parent of a two-and-a-half-year-old
Performances are arranged with venues, schools and early-years settings rather than sold to the public. Tell us who the children are and where you are.
Running times, cast size, staging conditions and the full technical specification for all three plays. Where fees are a barrier, we seek funding to come anyway.
