Last Christmas I took him to see the Fish and Game show at Cumbernauld Theatre. It is advertised at under 5s, so seemed the best fit for taking my 20 month old to the theatre for the first time. He was absolutely entranced. It was the first show I booked for this Christmas. No longer under the Fish and Game auspice, it was still devised by some of the same artists. This year's offering was Christmas at the Circus.
We went in the middle of December with a friend. Both loved it. The children in the audience are involved but in a subtle way. They are rooting for the circus members to solve their problem and achieve Christmas magic. Tickets were a bargainous £5 each and the show times are toddler friendly. The show is full of energy, hope, colour, simple trickery and a little humour.
Based on the success of Christmas at the Circus, I booked tickets for the Tron's offering of The Night After Christmas for Hogmanay. I wanted to prolong that Christmas feeling. (The other option was the Citizens' offering, which a friend had seen and enjoyed). The tickets were more expensive than Cumbernauld Theatre but you could see that this had been spent on the set and props. (Not that toddlers care either way! It's the plot, script and performance that need to be top notch and both were). The premise was that Santa's chefs are preparing a snack whilst he has a post-delivery nap. Angus loves food, so was gripped. He also loved the touch of Santa snoring off stage. With the rhyme to join in with, the audience was more 3-6 years than under 5s like Cumbernauld, but that's okay. By this point, Angus had figured out how being an audience member works and he was happy to sit by himself at the front. You do need to keep theatre-going up with toddlers and not just do once a year at Christmas. Whilst in many ways this show was similar to Cumbernauld's, theirs had a more youthful energy and fun, whilst the Tron had lots of clever tricks, props and games.
Image: John Johnston
In between all this, Itison had a deal for the Countdown to Christmas concert at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. These family shows are a co-production between Children's Classical Concerts and the RSNO aimed at 4-12 year olds. The shows are presented by Owen and Olly, a cut-price Dick and Dom who are classical percussionists. A big draw for Angus is that we get the Subway to the concert hall. He still asks to go to see a concert there, months afterwards. The programme is a mix of singalong carols, classical pieces from film scores (Home Alone!), showy pieces of percussion. Obviously my 30 month old enjoyed some bits more than others but he is not the target audience. I don't think I will pay the full ticket price just yet but it was really good afternoon out and it really made me feel festive.
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