Polyglot Theatre (AUSTRALIA)

Bees is a new work from Polyglot that offers a fun and intriguing participatory experience for children and families.

It explores a buzzing, humming hive of activity, as three human-sized bees busy themselves in the creation of a community alongside children who transform into bees as they play. The bees are fascinating, strange and beautiful, traversing invisible pathways and mapping delicate patterns across the performance space.

Inspired by the mysterious life and work of bees, this re-imagining of urban space involves the slow uncovering of an intricate unseen world. Bees uses ritual, non-verbal communication and the secret world of bee movement to provide a range of access points for children to participate. The design of the work is universally accessible, and participation based on physical patternmaking seamlessly weaves physical distancing into the performance.

Bees is designed to be presented in a range of spaces and contexts, including outdoor festivals, parks and open courtyards, indoor theatre and museum foyers, and galleries.

Polyglot Theatre’s Bees

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Ants is an interactive performance which has giant Ants bringing children together in a gentle and intriguing landscaping project.

Faced with hundreds of giant breadcrumbs and three big insects, children are irresistibly drawn in to discover what the Ants want them to do. Gradually a world of meaning unfolds, illustrating the human desire for order by transforming any public space with wavering lines and patterns, crossing adult lines and disrupting the everyday.

Ants is an enchanting investigation into the nature of work and children’s relationship with their environment.

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We Built This City is one of the happiest projects you will ever experience in your entire life.

This giant cardboard construction site involves whole communities in building the cities and towns of their dreams. Faced with thousands of cardboard boxes in big, open spaces, children and their families work together to create unique structures, inspired by their own familiar landscapes.

Polyglot artists roam the site, entertaining and engaging with kids building skyscrapers, tunnels and sprawling estates. Kids become building experts and adults enthusiastically follow their lead. The whole experience is accompanied by a funky soundtrack, and at the very end of the season, the city is shaken and stomped to the ground.

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Voice Lab is a unique creative installation module for collecting the thoughts and opinions of children.

Voice Lab encourages reflective thought and the articulation of opinions and feelings. Voice Lab is curious and pays close attention to what children think, feel and say, enabling their ideas to be shared to make positive change.

Voice Lab operates in two modes: the original physical mode and the newly-developed online version.

In the physical mode, children are invited one at a time into a beautifully designed, serene dome – entirely alone. In this space they have a conversation with Voice Lab – a voice driven by a concealed live performer that asks questions, encourages opinion and regards the child as the expert. In order for the physical mode to return to schools and communities, we have made a number of COVID-safe updates.

In response to COVID-19, Voice Lab’s online version offers children the opportunity to reflect on change and uncertainty, and to begin to process the pandemic’s impact on their sense of the world and themselves. In this period of isolation and disconnection it is vital that children have their voices heard and valued. Voice Lab shows children that no matter where they are or how alone they may feel, their voices can be heard and shared to make a difference.

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Boats engages children and their families in accesible play that transforms familiar space into something wild, and predictable and fun.

You will find Boats in the strangest of places – on dry land! Children and their families use their imaginations and small colourful boats to go on exciting, sea-faring adventures across the wide-open oceans of town squares and park lawns. There are islands to visit, stranded crew members to rescue, castaways and seagulls. There are times you might need to dodge sharks and steer through choppy water to safety.
Boats is an energetic experience that can absorb children from 10 minutes to hours and hours. Some may wish to rock in calm waters and tell adventure stories; others may wish to zoom around and explore. Children choose how they interact with the Harbourmaster, the crew and the landscape, making this a fun, shared family time that everyone can enjoy.