Stephen Beeny, Half Moon’s Communications Manager, joins us for today’s interview spotlighting theatres and shows across the London fringe.
Ten In The Bed is a “humorous and inventive new show” aimed at 3-8 year olds and their families.
Where: Half Moon Theatre, Limehouse
When: 4 May; 4-11 Jun 2024
Ticket link: https://www.halfmoon.org.uk/events/ten-in-the-bed/
The Half Moon Theatre for young people is an offshoot of the theatre formed in Whitechapel in 1972. It has been led by Chris Elwell since 1997.
How does Half Moon Theatre’s programming fit in with London’s other venues catering to children?
Half Moon is a local theatre. It has been rooted in the community of the East End and Tower Hamlets since 1972 and has become the UK’s leading small-scale young people’s venue and touring company.
We give young people from birth to 18 (25 for disabled young people) an opportunity to experience the best in young people’s theatre, both as an audience member and also as a participant.
Unlike many other London venues, we don’t offer a 6-days-a-week, year-round programme of shows for young audiences, but concentrate on Saturday shows and weekday schools’ shows for around nine months of the year.
This gives us more time for our extensive creative learning programme, which includes eight Youth Theatres, Creative Play sessions for babies and After School Drama clubs that take place across the borough.
We do, however, work closely with other venues that specialise in theatre for your audiences – we’re currently co-producing Soft orvSoiky?, a new baby show, with Polka Theatre (as well as touring Ten in the Bed to them for five days next month); plus Litle Angel Theatre are regular visitors to us with their hugely inventive puppet shows.
We also have an extensive On Demand streaming service featuring some of our recent productions.
Tell me more about Ten in the Bed. What should audiences expect?
Sharks getting bonked on the head. Pirate jokes. Giant slices of toast roll over the ocean waves like edible life rafts. Cake, and more cake!
It’s humorous, inventive and celebrates the power of imaginary play, proving there’s always enough room to have fun, even when the world is at its most daunting.
It’s written by award-winning teenage fiction writer Steve Tasane and sensitively explores the child refugee experience, where the power of invention offers an escape from reality.
Steve said he’d like audiences to “feel buzzed up and want to invent fresh games of their own, to celebrate being in the moment and, subconsciously, to begin shaping a more positive future.”
The show looks at child refugees, a very timely topic. How do you ensure a show has the right tone to reach your target age group?
Ten in the Bed has been in development since 2021. During this time, it has been workshopped with young people and undergone many changes to ensure it is age appropriate.
Throughout rehearsals, it will also be refined further to make sure young audiences enjoy and understand it. We also hope that the themes of the play will spark a post-show conversation with children and their families.
Steve has said that he wanted to write a play for young children that would delight and entertain, but with a serious underlying message that would be felt rather than told.
He wanted the children in the bed to be the agents of their own recovery, to take charge of life events that had always been totally out of their control; for them to reconstruct their own narrative – the story of the refugee journey.
A journey that ends with full bellies, a roomful of toys and – crucially – a bed which always has enough space for them all to sleep easy and warm.
Shows for children increasingly tackle tough questions from intriguing angles. Do you think this is an essential part of the theatre landscape today?
Absolutely! We must never underestimate the ability of young people to relate to difficult themes and learn from them.
Theatre has the power to promote critical thinking, empathy, emotional intelligence, resilience and social action.
This empowers young people to navigate a complex and ever-changing world with courage, compassion and curiosity.
What’s next for the show and the theatre?
After opening at Half Moon Theatre on Saturday 4 May 2024, Ten in the Bed heads off on a 10-week nationwide tour visiting 17 venues, including the Migration Matters Festival in Sheffield during Refugee Week, which is the perfect fit for our production!
It returns to Half Moon at the beginning of June to launch our Summer Season, when we’ll also film the show for release on our On Demand theatre streaming service.
The rest of the Summer Season features two wonderful productions, The Marvellous Myth Hunter for ages 5-11 (20-22 June) and Claytime for ages 0-8.
We’ll launch our autumn season at the end of July, so sign up to our newsletter and social media channels to be the first to hear what’s coming soon.
Image credit: Half Moon Theatre/Stephen Beeny