WHEN we think of where to take kids for some entertainment in the city, we have a list of the usual suspects: Zoos, cinemas, theme parks and ice skating rinks.
Rarely in listings of activities for children is there a mention of theatre. Theatre, as most of us know it here, is not something associated with the likes of the little ones. Most Malaysians who grew up going to government schools, like myself, only had the privilege of getting acquainted with the art form much later in life.
Even as adults, watching a play or a musical brings out the inner child in us. We are constantly enthralled by the decadent feast for the senses it offers — there are sets which transport you into a world different from your own, lights of all hues which bring movement and emote moments, sounds that thrill and stories which speak to our souls.
If theatre can do that for us as adults, imagine the kind of magic it can do for kids. Why then is children’s theatre something we barely take seriously?
JUST KIDS
“There’s a perception that children’s theatre equals cheap theatre,” says Chae Lian, co-founder and executive director of Gardner & Wife, one of Malaysia’s most established theatre companies, and the first of its kind to bring the genre to stages in the country.
“When we brought in children’s theatre to KL about 10 years ago, we were charging RM40 per ticket and people were asking why is it so expensive?” she shares, adding that parents had expected tickets to cost a minimum of RM10 for a child and RM20 for adults, for instance.
But as Chae explains, the lack of knowledge about the power of theatre trickled down to the actors. “During the festive season many of our friends get calls, asking if they could put up a show for children. And if someone puts on a children’s show, even the actors, writers and directors would have this attitude: It is okay if it’s not very good but that’s alright because it’s just children.”
As she bluntly summed it up, children didn’t matter.
AN EDUCATION
The attitudes towards children’s theatre did not dissuade Chae and her husband Richard Gardner, the other half of Gardner & Wife, from pushing the envelope in Malaysia.
Over the last decade, Gardner & Wife have brought down at least 20 top-notch British productions based on highly popular children’s books like Julia Donaldson’s The Snail And The Whale and The Gruffalo, Jill Tomlinson’s The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark, and Elmer The Elephant by David McKee.
“We’ve seen an increase of international as well as private schools in KL which has changed the course of children’s theatre,” Chae confides.
Understanding that performance arts is part of a wholesome education is slowly crushing the preconceived notion that plays crafted for kids are meant to be mediocre. She explains: “As more parents begin to understand the importance of non-academic education, there’s realisation that children deserve just as good if not better, and people start to realise that we deserve good children’s theatre. So people start to have that level of discernment that comes with education.”
Gardner, who actively seeks out acts to bring to Malaysia continues: “So now we don’t get that question of why so expensive. Instead we get teachers coming up to us and comparing the productions and plays we bring in and sharing their thoughts.”
The teachers whom Gardner is referring to are teachers from the international and private schools which have mushroomed in the capital city. These institutions of education include performance arts as part of their syllabus, something which our local education system hasn’t, unfortunately, picked up.
That, however, doesn’t mean local schools have not actively participated in the performing arts. As Chae points out, local schools often rely solely on teachers or principles who are passionate about the arts to get their schools actively involved in the scene.
ONE PLAY, MANY POSSIBILITIES
“Theatre does something for kids,” says Adam Bampton-Smith of Big Wooden Horse, a children’s theatre company from the UK who has worked with Gardner & Wife on several productions, including the upcoming Oliver Jeffers classic, Stuck.
“The first line of Stuck is ‘Have you seen Floyd?’ and you get the kids going ‘NO!’ and you get an engagement with an audience immediately,” he says with a laugh, adding that children are often told what to do, in both school and at home. “In theatre, children are given a voice. It allows them to be heard, and children deserve to be heard,” he notes.
Gardner concurs, recalling the children’s play Gardner & Wife brought down in 2014 called Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus. “It’s a fairly simple but entertaining play. All the driver tells the audience is don’t let the pigeon drive the bus. At one point, the Pigeon comes up on stage asks the audience, ‘Can I Drive the Bus?’ and the kids go ‘NO’!”
Children, as he points out, don’t get to say “No” very often, and analysis of Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus has shown that it empowers children to say it when it matters. Arts journalist Katie Colombus in her 2014 column in The Stage newspaper illustrated how much theatre can help develop young minds. “Through theatre, we are transported into the hearts and minds of the characters, recognising and understanding their actions and feelings which encourage communication and learning empathy — all within a constructed, safe environment,” she writes.
Brampton-Smith, who has been writing plays for children for over 12 years, shares her sentimentals. “That engagement with the audience is very important. Parents are often very surprised that their kids can sit for a whole hour, completely raptured by what they see on stage,” he says gleefully, adding that the real challenge in writing for children is in finding what triggers their reactions to things. “It’s quite amazing how similar children are all around the world. We’ve had shows all around — Singapore, Malaysia, USA, HK, Europe — and children laugh at the same things.”
A WHOLE NEW WORLD
In an interview with The Guardian, renowned children’s author and playwright David Wood states that theatre for children under the age of five was practically non-existent up till 10 years ago. In what he terms as “an extraordinary development”, the West End is allowing children’s theatre to be played on their stages as more shows are being created for children in that age group.
“The children’s shows actually often make more money than regular shows!” says Gardner, who feels at the root of theatre lies literature.
“Albert Einstein once said: Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school,” he shares.
As Gardner explains, times are changing and the world is realising how we are moving forward towards a society that creates, rather than imitating. “We just had Trump, and leaders in Brexit, all of whom have promised to bring back jobs to their economies that no longer exist. We are no longer educating people who work downlines or in a factory or to assemble things. Those days are gone. We have to educate knowledge workers or thinking workers. And literature is a large part of thinking.”
While Malaysia has a long way to go, many things have changed since Gardner & Wife brought in their first children’s theatre production to the capital city. The stature of the genre, as Chae observes, has grown considerably over time. As Wood concluded in his interview “The state of children’s theatre now, I think, is very exciting.”
Truth is, Gardner, Chae and Bampton-Smith would know this better than anyone else.