We make immersive sensory theatre for toddlers and adults alike, using a single material on stage. The world children discover is shaped by their own imagination; our work is only a mediator.
Why theatre for the very young
The sensorial world is alive and vibrant for a toddler. Theatre for them is about how the youngest child responds to pause and anticipation, glee and excitement, movement and sound, and even to moments of silence and stillness.
We need arts made for the very young because almost none exist. Parents wonder whether their child will sit for half an hour, or disrupt a performance. And in India we take our children everywhere, to every festival and celebration, yet little is made specially for them. We want to break both myths, and invite toddlers into a space for the arts for the first time in their lives.
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
We began making theatre for toddlers in 2011 and opened our first play in July 2012. Since then, we have created and toured three productions at schools, festivals and venues across the country. Crafted for children aged eighteen months to five years, our work is equally intended for adults who accompany them. To us, a parent or guardian is never just a caretaker; they are an equal member of our audience.
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.