A simply beautiful multisensory experience of joyful wonder that allows the very young playfully explore their universe playfully. Rating
Excellent
Univers, created by Spanish company Engruna Teatre, is a show of beauty and wonder that invites audiences aged 0-2 years to enjoy an enchanting multisensory experience, carefully tailored to its target participants. Even before the show begins at The Barbican’s Pit studio, it’s obvious that careful consideration has been given, with play mats in place and plenty of buggy parking in the foyer. Practicalities in hand, it’s then down to the business of magical transformation…
The audience enters through a darkened corridor, enhanced with twinkly lights, and there’s an instant thrill in the air. This leads us into an interactive new world, where we’re invited to sit around the edge of a white floor space and a fascinating, excitingly playful experience plays out. Multisensory is then absolutely the word for it, as Univers creates a shifting, magical atmosphere using striking visuals, affective music and warm, personal interaction with the audience.
Objects are placed at different levels, and include beautiful globes, glowing with gentle light, that hang from elegant metal bars above: they’re reminiscent of the kinetic mobiles by Joan Miro or Alexander Calder, and they move gently. A haunting, alien soundscape, provided by musician Jordi Sala, helps create the perfect environment for spectators to become explorers, and they need little encouragement to crawl and toddle up to join in. With the babies instantly engaged, Anna Farriol and Maria Ballús move and dance within the space, using interesting vocalisations that playfully and imaginatively reflect the theme of the universe. Building, playing and inventing alongside and with the children, they carefully guide and encourage them with excellent results.
There are a variety of ways to engage. Some of the children were happy to sit mesmerised as the performers demonstrated the properties of objects, being mindful of sound and movement as they activated them. Ethereal swishes emerged as tubes whisked through the air, or heavy, clunky noises gave a sense of solidity and weight to space rocks. Other children more actively negotiated the activities with their peers, filling or rolling tubes, or even helping as the performers visited fellow audience members, giving them a focussed moment beneath a sparkling, beaded canopy.
The performance process itself has a satisfying and positive sense of construction, as it gently introduces new objects which together become an installation that is hung as the night sky above the audience, and it’s a breathtaking moment when the final structure is completed.
With some very tiny babies alongside fast-running toddlers, the recommended age range for the show is perhaps a bit of a stretch: it might be more suited for toddling and non-mobile children, to avoid any threat of collision from excited two-year-olds. However, with guidance from the performers and stewards, everything was kept contained, and all of those present clearly enjoyed the show. A number of families stayed behind to investigate the hanging objects together, discovering the universe in their own time, in their own way, and one audience member was heard to compare the experience to a Cirque du Soleil event.This splendid production is part of a considered programme of performances for young people by the Barbican, at a time when the organisation has committed to widening access to the arts for young people – a direct response to Centre for London’s Arts for All project, which aims to remove barriers to Arts and Cultural Participation in London. It’s particularly fabulous that they are actively supporting this sometimes underrepresented age range in their planning and with such a gorgeous show as this. Univers is an absolutely wonderful first theatre experience.
Original idea: Anna Farriol, Mireia Fernàndez, Txell Felip and Júlia Santacana
Director: Mireia Fernàndez
Sound Designer, On-stage Technician and Musician: Jordi Sala
Set Designer: Clàudia Vilà
Lighting Designer: Ganecha Gil
Costume Design and Making: Núria Espinach
Executive Producer: Txell Felip
Univers is aimed at ages 0-2 years and runs in The Pit, Barbican until Saturday 13 December.
