The lost child

 

A trilogy of works over three years visioned and directed by David Glass 

working in countries around the world alongside displaced street children, local theatre practitioners, charity and care workers.

 

I was one of the Ensemble's multi-disciplined artists performing and leading workshops in the original creative team. During the first year we took the project to Vietnam, Cambodia, Argentina, Columbia, China, Yugoslavia and the Philippines; resident for five to six weeks and often travelling directly from one country to another. We performed our show created in the UK, then over the course of the 5-6 week residency we devised and performed with the children in a new co authored piece of work.

 

The over-arching theme of the project was lost childhood - not only children who are literally lost, abandoned or killed but also those that are lost within their homes; living in abusive or emotionally absent environments. And finally and perhaps most importantly of all, the child in all of us who has disappeared or become hidden.

The first,  "The Hansel and Gretel Machine", would explore, from a child’s perspective, what we do to children when we abandon them. The second piece, "The Lost Child", would be the inner stories of children from around the world. The final part, "The Red Thread", is a consolidation and continuation of the work, returning to many of the countries and children first visited to support the newly emerging young people’s theatre groups, child advocates and theatre practitioners.

 

It was a world of images and pure gestures, seen from a pre-verbal child’s point of view and using the universal language of mime, symbolism, dance, music and Noh-like storytelling techniques.