PERFORMANCE REVIEW: Brilliant - Fevered Sleep

Brilliant - Fevered Sleep

Lilian Baylis Studio

If making theatre for adults involves extracting, distilling, and fermenting complex phenomena that humans develop and encounter over time, then making theatre for children would be a journey which takes backward steps to find the roots of that which makes us laugh, wonder, question, discontent, anticipate, puzzle...

Brilliant is the last part in a trilogy of Fevered Sleep's latest creations for 3 to 5 year olds. The auditorium at the Lilian Baylis Theatre is reorganised to become an intimate space for small children. The story echoes a classic American bedtime tale 'Goodnight, Moon' in which the ritual of saying goodnight to everything in the young child's bedroom turns into an imaginative voyage. Light - in its myriad forms - appear, and child play ensues. The stag is playing a violin, and the moon, the stars and the lights dance. Wonderment is the adult way to describe what is happening on stage.

The magic and beauty of light is enlivened by various devices such as smoke, colour, mirror, and shadows. The main character, performed by Elisa de Grey, captures a child's spirit with delicacy and delight. The result is almost therapeutic. However I do not think the kids would agree with me. These little people have their own way to look at things and to respond that grown-ups have long forgotten.

And hence they make up a very different theatre going experience. The children in the theatre have toys with them; they eat, make noises, walk and talk whenever they feel like it. The parents, on the other hand, are apologetic and try to control their kids politely. About 10 minutes into the show, comments arise:

'I like orange!' (the light colour changes from blue to orange)

'There're five!' (the number of switches that have appeared)

'You missed it!' (the performer chases the the magic moon and keeps missing it)

'She missed it!' (the discussion among the kids starts...)

'Is it over now?' (it is just a black out)

The responses are unfeigned and liberating. It is definitely not easy to make a piece of performance for young children, and Fevered Sleep have found the key to unlocking the ways children see the world and in creating a piece that invite children to be themselves. And gratefully, they did not forget that grown-ups should enjoy it too.

Ingrid Hu