April 04 - April 13 2025
When the World Turns at Big Umbrella Festival (USA)
An immersive theatrical experience that celebrates the senses, inviting young people with complex disability and their families into a wondrous landscape of foliage, light, sounds, and shadows.

A collaboration between Polyglot Theatre (AUS) and Oily Cart (UK), presented by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (NYC)
As part of this year’s Big Umbrella Festival, comes When the World Turns, a fantastical theater experience for children and young people with disabilities and their families. Performers from Polyglot Theatre (Australia) lead you into the heart of a wondrous landscape, inviting you to become part of a wild place of the senses where you can see, hear, touch, smell, and feel this strange, rustling, breathing world as it reveals itself. When the World Turns playfully explores our connection with each other and with the world—offering a place where humans are equal players to plants and our living Earth in a new, inclusive ecology. This immersive and participatory journey will be one you will remember: full of surprise and wonder!
When the World Turns, a collaboration between Polyglot Theatre (AUS) and Oily Cart (UK), was originally commissioned by Arts Centre Melbourne for arts and disability festival Alter State 2022. This season has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. Polyglot Theatre is also supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria. For more information about the artists and children who were part of the original premiere season and creative development process, please click here.

Venue, Dates & Times, Tickets
Clark Studio Theater
Samuel B. & David Rose Building
165 West 65th Street, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10023
Dates & Times
- 4-6 & 11-13 April
- 12.30pm; 3.30pm
Tickets
- For this event, tickets will be sold as group tickets; each single group ticket accommodates 2–5 people, inclusive of individuals with disabilities, family members, and support team. To make the arts more accessible, tickets are available on a Choose-What-You-Pay basis. There is a suggested group ticket price of $25.00 USD; please book only 1 group ticket for your group of 2–5 people.
- Book now: lincolncenter.org
General Access
- For detailed venue acccessibility information, please visit lincolncenter.org/series/visit/info/accessibility-1
When the World Turns
- When the World Turns contains low theatrical lighting, light and shadow, amplified music and sound effects, a variety of plants and foliage, and use of naturally scented sprays. It is an interactive, immersive 360-degree theater experience.
- In the performance space, there will be up to six family groups. Each group can include up to five people; a mix of adults and children from a single family, and at least one adult and one child. ‘Families’ may include siblings, parents, family members, friends and support people. All participants are involved.
- After reserving tickets, you may receive a follow-up request to share more information about your group so that the artists can prepare the best experience for you.
Getting There
- For detailed information about getting to the venue, please visit lincolncenter.org
Acknowledgements
When the World Turns, a collaboration between Polyglot Theatre (AUS) and Oily Cart (UK), was originally commissioned by Arts Centre Melbourne for major arts and disability festival Alter State 2022.
This season has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. Polyglot Theatre is also supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.
The original development and premiere was supported by the UK/Australia Season Patrons Board, the British Council and the Australian Government as part of the UK/Australia Season, with further support from the Cassandra Gantner Foundation, State Trustees Australia Foundation, the Jennifer Prescott Family Foundation, the Marian and E.H. Flack Trust, ArtPlay, Arts Council England and ecoDynamics.
Big Umbrella Festival
From April 4–20, 2025, Big Umbrella Festival welcomes kids, teens, and adults for a dynamic series of programming over three weekends, designed with and for neurodiverse audiences. Audiences can design their own festival weekend by booking tickets below to individual events. Polyglot Theatre and Oily Cart present When the World Turns, an immersive theatrical experience that celebrates the senses, inviting audiences into a wondrous landscape of foliage, light, sounds, and shadows. Peruvian theater company Teatro La Plaza reinvents Shakespeare’s Hamlet into a joyful and enigmatic production where the stories of people with Down syndrome take center stage. Young children and families are invited to explore, move, and create with SecondHand Dance’s The Sticky Dance: For Sensory Groovers and at the participatory Magical Miniature World Workshop. Plus, the renowned ReelAbilities Film Festival—the largest festival in the world dedicated to films by and about people with disabilities—returns with a comedy night; and the Chamber Music Society offers two relaxed CMS Kids musical events, created for children with autism and sensory disorders. Find more events for Kids, Teens, and Families throughout the year!
Learn more: lincolncenter.org