So, what do the children in Birmingham think?

This was an important and very positive day. The children from Reaside and Chandos, who came to our sharing back in October, came to watch rehearsals again today, and we showed them most of the play, during a stopping run. Then we had a chance to talk with them during lunch time, as well as a first chance for most of the company to see the Yoghurt World level for Little Big Planet, the Playstation game which the Reaside children have designed.

The actors rose to the situation of having an audience, and the response was certainly encouraging. Obviously these children know the story already, so they are not a proper test of how easy it is to follow, but there were indications that the clarity is about right. They really enjoyed it too, and it was encouraging that one of their favourite bits was the Brazil section, which has provided us so much anxiety over the last few months.

Steve Hands, who has been working with the Reaside group, came in at lunchtime and spent time going through the most recent version of the game with the group. The actors anjoyed their first taste of the game too. Clive Chandler, who will be doing a puppet project with Chandos over the next week, watched the run too, and they did some planning for their project.

After the kids had gone, we ran the rest of the play, and then went over the Brazil scene. There was another run scheduled for the aftrenoon, but it felt like that would have constituted cruel and unusual punishment, and we just did some bits instead.