The inspiration for Plink/Boo is the feminist social media campaign Let Toys Be Toys, which calls for retailers and publishers to stop gender stereotyping children’s toys and books by labelling them as ‘for girls’ or ‘for boys’, and let children have the freedom to decide for themselves what they want to read and play with.
Plink/Boo furthers this campaign by questioning how gender stereotypes actually affect play, and children’s attitudes towards each other. The show will gently interrogate some of the beliefs that even the youngest children already hold, about what is and isn’t appropriate for them, according to their perceptions of gender identity.
Enter a world where nothing is off limits: no one can tell you how to play, what to wear, and who you can or cannot be.
You can be everything. We all can.
Plink/Boo is the product of a six month research and development period exploring gender stereotyping in children’s toys and play, working with children and families in Bristol and Swindon. Using circus, physical theatre and live music, Can’t Sit Still invites you to explore why sometimes people can’t fit into boxes, even if it is the neatest place to put them.
The show will be held by two circus performers and a live musician. The action will be created through physical theatre, movement, acrobatics, object manipulation, original music, and spontaneous, improvised play. We are working with a designer to create a micro-theatre that can tour to a variety of venues. This will allow a blank space, with no physical boundary between audience and performers - the action will move behind, through, in, out, up and under the audience. We will utilise circus techniques to allow us to explore the 360 degree performance sphere.
The show will be highly participatory. The audience should feel free to react spontaneously and naturally within the performance, creating their own rules of theatre-going in the space with the performers. We hope that this will allow for the lived and live experience of each audience to shape the performance.