What age is suitable for your child’s first trip to the theatre? Early high school? Primary age? Nursery? Actually, it’s as young as four months, argues Katherine Morley, creator of The Presents, a musical show aimed at babies aged 4-18 months.
The theatre’s somewhere I’m always vaguely nervy about going lest I cough at an inopportune moment or require a bathroom break midway and have to annoy people by edging past them.
For those attending The Presents, however, the rules are far more relaxed. There’s comfortable seating, the audience are free to come and go, and many of the viewers will be wearing their own nappies to save time taking bathroom breaks.
The show coming to the Byre Theatre in St Andrews on Saturday is aimed at infants aged four to 18 months.
“We’ve just finished the first week and it’s going really well so far,” says its creator Katherine Morley. “The look of concentration on the babies’ faces was lovely. They’ve been quite transfixed.”
The surreal show features performer-musicians Su-a Lee of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Emily Mitchell and Iain Sandilands from the Scottish Symphony Orchestra. They perform a series of musical vignettes, each with a different theme.
“It’s quite rare to do this sort of thing,” Katherine continues. “Normally, shows aimed at young people are oriented towards language development, but this is a quite beautiful and magical musical journey.”
Katherine is co-founder of Glasgow based arts company Reeling & Writing. Last year they toured with a show called If I Was a Mouse I Would Hide in Your Hood.
“It was aimed at three to six-year-olds,” Katherine says. “We also worked on Scottish Opera’s BabyO, which toured last spring and autumn and was aimed at young babies.”
Carefully designed to appeal to developing minds, each segment in The Presents contains an object, a splash of colour or some engaging sounds. There’s a cave that dances with light, a hillside encounter with a shy red deer, and a giraffe with a floppy neck.
“It’s quite liberating for theatre makers because there’s less of a need for narrative,” Katherine adds. “It’s much more abstract and about the image and the movement.”
Each segment is around two to three minutes in length.
“In many ways it’s not much different to making plays for adults or young people. In most classic plays, even big Shakespearean ones, there are mood changes. You might have a big meaty scene followed by something lighter. The Presents is similar, the music changes the mood completely every scene.”
The music in The Presents was penned by children’s composer Paul Rissman, the man behind the acclaimed Royal Scottish National Orchestra series Naked Classics. It might never occur to parents that their babies and toddlers are old enough for theatre, but Katherine says it’s surprising how captivating they find the show.
“A lot of parents have said to us they never would have thought of taking their babies to the theatre. But they loved it and a lot of them have said they’re going to come back again.”The Presents is on at the Byre Theatre in St Andrews on Saturday at 10.30am and 2pm. Visit www.byretheatre.com or phone 01334 475000 for more information.