Bitef

Suzanne Osten

ON CHILDREN'S THEATRE AND TABOO "Children want the truth" Why psychosis is an essential subject for children's theatre. Children today watch television soap operas and, as they have always done, actively observing adult life. They are going to assume the role of being an adult, and everything they see adults do is of significance as they repeat everything in their games. And what are adults up to in soap operas? They: are unfaithful drink alcohol make business deals have terrible conflicts encounter discrimination play the stock market dabble in pornography Television soaps are becoming contemporary folk - tales. Adults make up legends about themselves, and both adults and children are intrigued to see and hear anything that might illuminate the future. We ourselves might be surprised both at the numbers who watch soaps in their relative youth, yet sitting before this cold "television hearth" we come close to something that reminds us of the way we envisage the world of the folk-tale: "Once upon a time..." And everyone moves a little closer to the fire to hear the story. By spending a lot of time in those places the Swedish society sets aside for children (kindergartens, schools, school playgrounds, youth clubs and recreation centres), I discovered that children inhabited a world that was isolated from adults and filled with incomprehensible chaos, violence and obscure laws. Children's games expressed both a parody and an imitation of the social hierarchies and values of adults. But children are also subject to the rule that says that if you tell tales, you will be punished. And then we, the adult artists, would turn up and invite them to "tell u 5..." while we ourselves were all in therapy, telling tales in our turn.-We are each looking for support for the way in which we perceive the world. It really is difficult being alive, and we need other people to show us the way. "A theatre that does not look like children's theatre" As a director, what I need to do is to create new images, particularly of something as clichéd as“childhood . I mix genres and styles: realism, language, the avant-garde, complexity and the spectacular; one has to ensure that the product does not look as though it is for children. We can tell a story from

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