Heading to a local theatre in Brentford to see Tangled Feet’s Belongings on its current tour, I was expecting magic, education, and invention.
I’d previously seen the digital capture of Butterflies at the Half Moon Theatre, and admired its approach to addressing serious issues for a child audience.
Belongings is aimed at 7-12 year olds, and its subject is children in foster care. Leila (Jesse Bateson), BT (Harris Cain), and Cleo (Carla Garratt) are the residents who live in this transient place, close to home but not home.
These three actors have been working on this touring play for some time, and as well as being convincing children, they have a good rapport with each other throughout.
The stage manager providing the sound, Steve Watling, also doubles as Jo, the foster parent there to provide care and boundaries. He is not the ‘nameless’ adult who deposited Cleo there, but he isn’t their dad either.
Becky-Dee Trevenen’s set is dominated by piles of clothing and a metal clothes rail, which doubles as a climbing frame or a door. It gives a sense of adventure while hinting at the transient nature of foster care.
Leila misses her sister, separated from her. BT is looking for a family who enjoys his games. Cleo just wants to go back home to her mum. We don’t know how these three were placed together or much about their back stories.
Using some shadow puppetry and creative use of problems, some tender moments come to life, and some scary ones, too. It’s deeply inventive, and the children in the audience were engrossed throughout.
Directed by Nathan Curry with music/sound design by Guy Connelly and lighting design by Sarah Readman, Belongings creates a world full of suggestions while leaving enough space for children to ask questions later.
Created in partnership with Rowan Tree Dramatherapy, working with a group of young people with experience of the care system, Belongings manages to be both entertaining and empathetic.
Through hopes, dreams, games, and connection, the three children make the best of the world they have been placed in but don’t fully understand. It’s a very creative show that, yes, does have a sprinkling of magic.
Belongings continues on tour until 6 Jun with tickets here.
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