Polyglot’s October e-news

“An exquisite sense of joy and play”

When the World Turns, our collaboration across time and distance with Oily Cart in the UK, premiered at Arts Centre Melbourne in September. Commissioned for Alter State, a major arts and disability festival, this immersive, fantastical, sensory production was created for young people who experience the most barriers to access.

When the World Turns has been three years in the making. The creative team has deftly pivoted around COVID-19 complexities to ensure we connected deeply and meaningfully with families and schools during the development. The family shows sold out over a month before the season, reiterating the hunger and excitement for work made with and for children with complex disabilities. For Polyglot, it further confirms the vital importance of creating art that includes all children in ways that are comfortable for them, and reinvigorates our momentum in our ongoing access and equity work.

“It was a wonderful experience for our whole family. We always walk past Arts Centre Melbourne but never imagined we would get the opportunity to see a show.”

Sarah Austin, award-winning theatre maker and lecturer in theatre at the University of Melbourne, reviewed When the World Turns for The Conversation: “Eventually, the child audience members realise they are leading the performance. The performers are responding to their noises and sounds; these are creating the shape and experience of the performance… There is an exquisite sense of joy and play permeating the room.”

We’re rolling towards our final premiere season of the year: Pram People is being presented by Melbourne Fringe and Melbourne Museum! A moment in time for children who ride in prams, and the adults who push them, Pram People is a participatory performance that rolls out the red carpet for every pram, big or small.

Pram users will assemble en masse, following curious and wonderful prompts through headphones, secret messages and even other participants. Performers will delight and intrigue, adding to the fun as families weave amongst and around each other.

FREE sessions are taking place at 10am and 1.30pm on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 October. Bookings are essential for participants (adults with children in prams). Other family members and friends are welcome to come along and watch the spectacle unfold. Book now via the Melbourne Fringe website.

Are you a current pram user? Have you ever used a pram? We’d love to hear your stories, memories, triumphs and struggles. All via audio recordings you can text to us! For all the info and instructions, visit our What’s On page.

“If you see 60 prams in a public space you might imagine they are all jostling to get in line, to get that last space in the tram, to get parked in order to lift their child out and enter the Museum. 

But what if they don’t? What if they get to use that convenient mode of transport to assert themselves in a public space? What if the adults not only push their children around, but as they do, they collectively enter a journey, a space of imagination and wonder, a space that understands who they are and what they need? What if, before a passerby’s eyes, a community evolves, and that community starts to move together creating a sea of connection and story?” Emily Tomlins, Pram People director

Support Polyglot Theatre: a donation of any size will help us develop and share our unique, transformative theatre experiences with children, families and communities everywhere.

Commissioned by Arts Centre Melbourne for major arts and disability festival Alter State, When the World Turns is 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 and Arts Council England.

Pram People is supported by the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government initiative, and the City of Melbourne through the Arts and Creative Investment Partnership fund and ArtPlay. The Melbourne Fringe XS program is supported by Lucas Dental Care.