and Mirain Fflur
KIDSTOWN
A performance installation for children to play inside and adults to listen to from the outside.
Artists Nigel & Louise:
“We wanted to make something for children that thinks about theatre and storytelling in a different way. Something that children could create without us dictating the parameters of what the outcome might be.
So we made a live performance, a story, an installation, a game called Kidstown - where children can do and make whatever they want, have fun and play with other children, without any rules. Here they are, in fact, creating the story live, totally uninhibited by the pressures of making a performance or adults telling them what’s right and wrong. A different narrative evolves over the course of each day, for the children inside the walls to enjoy and for the adults listening outside to imagine, as a by-product of their play.
As theatre makers we are handing over the arena to the children, then our job will be to listen and ask questions while their imaginations get to work.”
The Story of Kidstown
Lorne Campbell - Artistic Director of NTW :
Roll back to 2021. We were all feeling our way back to life after the shock of lockdown and for many children it was a terrifying time of confusion and readjustment. Many were overwhelmed and unprepared to step back outside again.
We talked about this with Nigel Barrett and Louise Mari, two artists who are never short of ideas. We spoke about the significance of kids experiencing something that grown-ups couldn’t give them a map for - all new, unknown, sometimes scary, sometimes just really, really boring.
There’s something about Nigel and Louise and their work; they radiate warmth and weirdness and indulge us in the beauty and madness of the world. They remind us that there’s a child in all of us.
Their idea was to create an experience that could revive a sense of freedom and joy in our kids. Empowering them to make sense of their environment by making and building - through imaginative, chaotic and uninhibited play. Where grown-ups weren’t allowed and children set the rules. And children could be together again, not watched over every second of the day.
We put a lot on this generation of kids - we’re hoping they’ll be the ones who can think and do things differently. To get us out of the mess we’ve created.
Play will be the thing that lays down the foundations for our next generation of inventors, innovators and creators. And theatre can do its bit in this. It’s what theatre is, isn’t it - play and storytelling?
Play will be the thing that lays down the foundations for our next generation of inventors, innovators and creators. And theatre can do its bit in this. It’s what theatre is, isn’t it - play and storytelling?
That's what inspires us about Kidstown. We’re not a society known for our ability to listen and learn from our children. But maybe that’s a change we need to start to see. Give them a chance to show us what's possible and see what happens…
We got to know the people of Newtown and asked for their help making this magical playground for children where there are no rules and no adults call the shots. We piled up cardboard, fabric, paint, clothes, broken machinery, anything we could lay our hands on ... and let the kids of Newtown put their imaginations to work and tested the idea, with their feedback showing us the way forward.
Castles were built. Shops opened. Mayoral elections were rudely interrupted by escaped tigers. Grown-ups flicked through copies of National Geographic listening intently from the outside to the stories unfolding inside. All the while, Nigel and Louise asked questions and listened to what the kids had to say.
This was just the beginning of Kidstown.
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This was just the beginning of Kidstown.
The following summer Kidstown came back to Newtown in an epic manifestaion of everything we had talked about and worked on with the kids. It suddenly appeared on the Llyn Peninsula for the National Eisteddfod and and finally popped up in a football field in Ebbw Vale.
Children aged 6-11 years old were invited to get a passport to enter Kidstown and play a massive game that they make up themselves. There were no rules. Most stayed all day. And then returned the next day with more friends. Stories unfolded over the week. Children took home what they’d made and carried it back day after day. Noone wanted to leave Kidstown.
Through the joy of unadulterated play and the power of storytelling Kidstown offered children a space to imagine the world they want to live in and shape a better future for all of us. It’s time for us, as grown-ups, to listen.
Not only is Kidstown playful and transgressive, it’s also about spotlighting voices more than often unheard on stages across the UK - those of our children.
All of NTWs’ work is focused on delivering the goals of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, but Kidstown truly puts our future generations front and centre.
We’re taking a genuinely collaborative approach to this project, listening deeply to children as they experience Kidstown and building a massive bank of their stories, observations, concerns, hopes and dreams to create a radical theatre production in 2024 - A Requiem for our children and their futures.
