Monkey Bars
Doesn’t really seem you’re just going to be an adult.
Like time flies by and you just want… to, like, stay as a child,
but you just enjoy things, the way it goes.
Monkey Bars is an award-winning verbatim show developed out of conversations with over seventy children aged between seven and ten, conducted by Karl James (director of The Dialogue Project and co-director of Tim Crouch’s work).
The candid conversations focus on moments of transition and change; on being scared, getting lost, being brave, growing up; and on their perspective on the adult world that surrounds and awaits them.
Writer/director Chris Goode and an ensemble of six actors have worked with full transcripts of these conversations, carefully re-shaping the children’s exchanges to create around them a variety of adult characters and situations.
Reframing the dialogues by transplanting them into the world of grown-ups, Monkey Bars offers an adult audience a revelatory insight into what children are trying to tell us about their lives that we don’t always hear.
You can buy the text of Monkey Bars from our publishers at Oberon.
REVIEWS
“It is a sweet, funny, occasionally sad show that makes beautiful currency out of children’s general inability to speak anything other than their minds.” Time Out ★★★★
“Hilarious and poignant by turns… beautifully staged.” The Telegraph ★★★★
“Monkey Bars gently grabs you by the heart and the mind and doesn’t stop showing you things and making you think and feel for the full extent of its 1 hour 15 minute duration…. It moves you. It makes you think. It makes you laugh and it makes you well up more than once. Most of all, it will make you wonder why we adults don’t take children a lot more seriously.” Whatsonstage.com ★★★★★
“The words of children take on a new gravity… It makes us hear them and take what they have to say – in all its wit, wisdom and absurdity – very seriously indeed.” The Guardian ★★★★
“Laughing through the tears and leaving in desperate need of a cuddle, audiences will hopefully learn the wider value in listening and find Monkey Bars to be the start of a new openness, not just to the thoughts of the young but to everyone” Exuent Magazine ★★★★★
“Goode’s production, featuring his trademark atmospheric soundtrack, is beautifully pitched… an eye-opening, refreshing pleasure.” Independent ★★★★★
“A cool, sobering and quietly passionate reality check… the intensity of the process of listening that has shaped this show is both humbling and deeply moving.” The Scotsman ★★★★ FRINGE FIRST AWARD
“Heartbreaking and hilarious, and often overwhelming. After it, you’ll never hear children in the same way again.” The List ★★★★★
CREDITS
Created by Chris Goode & Company
Writer/Director/Sound - Chris Goode
Dialogue Artist - Karl James
Designer - Naomi Dawson
Lighting Designer - Colin Grenfell
Production Manager - Helen Mugridge
Producer - Ric Watts
Cast - Philip Bosworth, Angela Clerkin, Jacquetta May, Christian Roe, Gwyneth Strong, Gordon Warnecke
A Chris Goode & Company and Unicorn Theatre co-production
Co-commissioned by Warwick Arts Centre and The Brewhouse
Supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation and the National Theatre Studio
DATES
Upcoming
9 - 26 January 2013 - Unicorn Theatre, London
History
Autumn 2012 Unicorn Theatre, Drum Theatre, The Brewhouse,Warwick Arts Centre.
August 2012 - Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Developed at National Theatre Studio, June 2011