Saw a little gem yesterday at the Lyric Hammersmith.  Fevered Sleep’s Brilliant (that’s the name of the show, not my opinion of it).

Billed as a show for 3 and up (staying clear of that dreadful “for everyone aged 3 to 93!” tag which marketing departments seem to be fond of), it was a delightful, intelligent, beautiful piece of work about a girl who goes into a dream world where she can play with twinkly lights and disco balls and a stag who plays the violin. He was nice. He had a looping pedal as well.

Little kids. In theatre. Gorgeous. They were chatting and telling the actor to “GO TO BED!” or “TOUCH THE MOON!” with joyful abandon. All hands in the air and wide eyes and open mouths.

And it struck me that this was an experimental show for kids – little people who don’t really care about narrative, they just like the pretty things.  And they ‘get’ whatever story is in there anyway – they understand it’s a dream – they understand that dreams don’t really make sense, and they love it.  And I loved it too. Theatre for 3 year olds which wasn’t patronizing or in primary colours – gets my vote.