Producer Emma Brünjes talks about CBeebies Rainbow Adventure
This summer the CBeebies Rainbow Adventure comes to Westfield in Shepherd’s Bush, London. It’s a brand new interactive journey for children aged 0-6 years, featuring all your CBeebies favourites from Hey Duggee to Bluey to Mr Tumble. We were delighted to get the opportunity to talk with producer Emma Brünjes to ask all about this colourful, creative experience.
Hello Emma! Thanks for taking the time to chat with us about this fabulous new project. Can you tell us a bit about what families can expect to find at the CBeebies Rainbow Adventure?
All the colours of the rainbow have disappeared and our audience, led by their Rainbow Gardener who looks after the rainbow, need to find the colours and restore the rainbow! As they travel on their journey they will visit very familiar spaces – Duggee’s Clubhouse, Bluey and Bingo’s Bedroom, Mr Tumble’s living room and JoJo and Gran Gran’s Kitchen plus the Rainbow Garden, of course, where they should find the rainbow!
How did you come up with the idea?
This show has been on quite a journey itself. Conceived by our friends at Theseus pre-pandemic, they were stopped in their tracks in April 2020.
Collaborating with Ed Snape from Fiery Angel we realised it was too brilliant a concept to not bring to life. With Theseus and BBC’s support we have taken the original concept and developed it out to create a rich, storytelling, immersive theatrical experience combining our love of event with storytelling theatre.
Why did you decide to create an immersive experience rather than a standard show?
The original concept was to create an interactive space for pre-school audiences that combined all the brilliant shows produced by CBBC. Outside of a theme park this has never been done before.
The appeal for me was to take this concept and create a narrative piece of storytelling theatre in a sensory immersive environment for pre-school children. It’s not been achieved before for audiences of this age and as mum to three children under five I knew how much they would enjoy and engage in this opportunity. Not a standard show and not a trip to a play park, but hopefully a brilliant combination of both!
You and Ed Snape have impeccable production backgrounds, working on West End and touring theatrical shows, but have you worked on live productions for children before, or is this a new field for you?
Ed is an industry leader in children’s entertainment having produced Peppa Pig, Bing, The Octonauts, Teletubbies and The Smartest Giant in Town amongst many others, with his company Fiery Light. I adore the fact he has produced serious theatre such as the Kenneth Branagh seasons and Peppa Pig. But what you might not know is that he also started life as a children’s entertainer!
I’ve had the great pleasure of working with our writer, Emma Earle, and director, Joe Hufton, on an immersive show for children aimed at 5 -10 year-olds when we created Adventures in Wonderland alongside Alice’s Adventures Underground. They are also both parents of pre school children so very well qualified. In fact the creative team have 11 children between them!!
What are the challenges of working with such iconic characters?
These major brands are successful because they are created with care and diligence. Respecting that but equally transitioning them into this new environment is a challenge. We’ve enjoyed working with our colleagues at the BBC in tackling all these hurdles and working out how we can creatively and faithfully bring them to life. We are looking forward to seeing the wonder on the children’s faces when they realise they are in Duggee’s Clubhouse and get to dance at his disco or play Magic Xylophone in Bluey and Bingo’s Bedroom.
Can you tell us how you decided on the Westfield shopping complex for your venue?
Moving the production to shopping centres was a response to the changing face of retail post pandemic. Finding locations for immersive theatre productions is always a complex part of the process. Westfield, as the premier shopping centre in Europe, was an obvious choice and we were thrilled they jumped at our approach. We are really excited to take our show directly to our audience.
Which are your personal favourite CBeebies characters and will you get to meet them? I’m a massive Bluey fan myself…
It’s got to be Duggee! I spent a considerable amount of time watching Hey Duggee during lockdown with my first son. And yes, you will get to meet Duggee at the end of the show, or Bluey, depending on what show you see!
But I’m most excited, if you allow me to be sentimental for a moment, seeing my children’s faces as they walk through the space and realise they are in the spaces they know, that this is their story and they get to be part of the action. Creating work for them is the most thrilling and rewarding part of this process…. I’ll let you know their review!
Thanks very much to Emma for taking the time to chat with us about this exciting new project. The CBeebies Rainbow Adventure is aimed at ages 0-6 years and will run from 22 July – 3 November at Westfield, Shepherd’s Bush, London. More information and tickets are now available here.
