Children’s Fest programme
The Joy of Imaginate is back!
The Edinburgh International Children’s Festival returns this weekend for a day of free family events at the Museum of Scotland on Saturday, followed by a full dozen shows for children, at venues across Edinburgh.
This year’s festival runs from Saturday’s Family Day through to the following weekend, with the last performances on Sunday 1 June. The main venues are the Traverse, Studio Theatre, and Assembly Roxy, with single productions at the Lyceum Studio, Lyra, North Edinburgh Arts and a new venue for the festival, Portobello Town Hall.
Minnie Crook and Dan Brown preview Wig Waltz ahead of their performance at the Family Day at the National Museum of Scotland. Pic: Tom Duffin.
Highlights at the Family Day include a second showing of Election, a humorous take on politics and power, created with young people as part of Imaginate’s Creative Encounters project.
Wig Waltz by Dan Brown and Minnie Crook features over-the-top wigs and period costumes, while 1, 2, 3 Resilient Mushrooms! tells the story of three tiny but mighty mushrooms through physical storytelling, ceilidh dancing and Scottish traditional music.
Other pop-up shows include a spectacular aerial duet by All or Nothing Dance Theatre on a giant swing; a treasure hunt; the return of walkabout performers The Party Shrimp and the world’s biggest (and cutest!) cat.
This will be the 35th Children’s festival and the final programme put together by Director Noel Jordan, who is set to stand down at the end of the year after a decade at the helm.
“This year’s programme features exciting Scottish theatre makers, including Greg Sinclair and his new show Tongue Twister, which humorously celebrates the beauty and musicality of language through tongue twisters and gorgeous costumes,” says Jordan.
“Sadiq Ali and Vee Smith’s first show for young audiences, The Unlikely Friendship, explores the power of friendship and how it can transform us from misfits into fantastical creatures ready to pursue our dreams.
Joy
“The Festival includes a number of intensely physical works that explore storytelling through acrobatics, and expands our ideas of the possibilities of what the human body can do.
“Ultimately, I want this festival to be about the power of creativity, celebration and fun; not as a form of escapism from all the problems we face, but as an expression of joy. Because without joy – in our bodies, and in the power of our imaginations – we will never be able to overcome those problems.
“We hope that this year’s Festival truly captures that spirit, and celebrates it.”
Listings
Venues:
National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, EH1 1JF
Traverse, 10 Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED
Studio Theatre, Potterrow, EH8 9BL
Assembly Roxy, 2 Roxburgh Pl, EH8 9SU
Dancebase, 14-16 Grassmarket, EH1 2JU
Lyra at Artspace, 11 Harewood Rd, EH16 4NT
North Edinburgh Arts, 12C MacMillan Square, EH4 4AB
Lyceum Studio, 30B Grindlay Street, EH3 9AX
Portobello Town Hall, 47-149 Portobello High St, Portobello EH15 1AF.
Sat 24 May 2025
Family Fun Day (Various performers)
National Museum of Scotland
10am – 5pm..
All ages (Various performance times over the day).
A free day of pop-up performances and artist interventions for families in the beautiful settings of the National Museum of Scotland – an ideal way to get creative and experience exciting new ideas from local artists. The programme will also feature new commissions in partnership with Merchant City Festival, Aberdeen Performing Arts, and Paisley Book Festival as well as three commissions through Imaginate’s Creative Encounters project. Tickets and details.
Sun 25 – Wed 28 May 2025
Grown Ups (compagnie barbarie)
Traverse 1
Sun: 7pm; Mon, Wed: 9.45am; Mon/Tue 1pm; Tue 7.15pm..
4 – 12 years (45 mins).
Adults work. And children play. Or they go to school. Or they sleep. And when they sleep, grown-ups continue working. In the living room. On their computers. Once they’ve cleaned the kitchen. But what do grown-ups really do? Do they put the world to rights? Do they have a nap? Or do they make a mess of things? Do they really have everything under control? A hilarious and absurd tragi-comedy about what happens to grown-ups when children are not looking. Tickets and details.
Sun 25 – Wed 28 May 2025
Shades of Shadows (Tangram Kollektiv)
Studio Theatre
Sun: 11am, 2pm; Mon/Tue: 10am, 1.15pm; Wed: 9.30am, 11.15am.
4 – 10 years (45 mins).
Light and shadow belong together. But what happens when shadows suddenly develop a life of their own, when they multiply at will, liberated from the laws of physics, to come into the limelight? A journey through an enchanted city, with two puppeteers creating and leading us into the magical universe of shadows, where everyday objects perform their own little dance of freedom. Shadows enter through the back door to steal our things. They get bigger and smaller, they split and merge. They start interacting with the world and the relation between objects and their shadows becomes blurry. Tickets and details.
Mon26 – Wed 28 May 2025
The Unlikely Friendship (Vee Smith and Sadiq Ali)
Assembly Roxy
Mon/Tue: 1.15pm, 7pm; Wed: 10am, 1.15pm..
8 – 14 years (55 mins).
Two friends perform breathtaking aerial shows. They fly, spin, hang from the rooftops and fall out of the sky… But they weren’t always so glorious. How did they transform from feeling like outsiders, unable to fit in, to the fantastical creatures they always knew they had inside them? The touching story of a girl who wants to be a monster and a boy who wants to fly. Exploring the universal yearning to belong and sharing the joy of friendship, this is a dynamic and visually stunning aerial show. Tickets and details.
Tue 27 – Thurs 29 May 2025
Tiébélé (Théatre de la Guimbarde with the Wéléni Association)
Lyceum Studio
Tue: 1.45pm, 4.130pm; Wed/Thur: 11am, 1.45pm.
18 mths – 6 years (40 mins).
On the roof of a Kassena house, a young woman mixes clay and water and starts making marks. Accompanying her is a musician playing the N’goni string instrument. The melodic sound and their voices blend and interweave. Together, they sketch the patterns that will brighten the walls of their houses. Tiébélé echoes the magnificent prints left on their homes by the women of a village in Burkina Faso. It combines earth and song, organic matter and poetry. A creation that links the gestures of these African women to toddlers’ first drawings. Tickets and details.
Tue 27 – Fri 30 May 2025
Not Falling (tout petit)
Dance Base
DailyL: 10.15am, 12.45pm..
4 – 10 years (50 mins).
An energetic performance in which three dancers try to escape gravity. They fly through space, soar in the air and gently return to the ground. In a fascinating interaction with film projections of children leaping and seemingly floating in slow motion, the compelling performers create a world in which everything seems possible. Tickets and details.
Tue 27 – Sat 31 May 2025
Tongue Twister (Greg Sinclair and Scottish Theatre Producers)
North Edinburgh Arts
Daily: 1.45pm; Tue, Thurs, Fri: 10.45am; Wed 6.30pm; Sat: 11am.
6 – 12 years (50 mins).
One man’s attempt to say tongue twisters in as many different languages as possible. Whilst also trying to dance. And make music. And do all the costume changes without leaving the stage. A delight for the eyes and ears, created and performed by award-winning performance artist and musician Greg Sinclair, and featuring dazzling costumes and innovative visual design. Humorous, colourful, rhythmical and odd, Tongue Twister is a celebration of the musical beauty of language.. Tickets and details.
Thurs 29 – Sat 31 May 2025
The Pale Baron (Kopergietery)
Traverse 1
Thurs: 10am, 1pm; Fri: 10am, 7.30pm; Sat: 3pm, 7pm..
8 – 14 years (One hour 15 mins).
The pale baron is the great leader of the underwater state. He always grabs the last piece, even before others have been served. He strongly dislikes poets. They mean all kinds of things, in between the lines, in the blank spaces where nothing is written. This makes the baron feel very uncomfortable. Fortunately, Felix & Felka are not poets. They are singers… With a cool underground gig vibe, this is a musical tale about the friendship between two musicians trying to subvert a regime that dislikes anyone that is deemed superfluous or different. Tickets and details.
Thurs 29 May – Sun 1 June May 2025
Beneath the Snow (Les Bestioles)
Traverse 2
6 mths-3 yrs: Thurs/Fri: 9.30am; Sat 11.15 am, 1.30pm; Sun: 1pm..
3 – 6 years: Thur: 11.15am, 1.30pm; Fri: 11am; Sat: 3.30pm, Sun: 3pm. (length).
Two figures dressed in white, walk on a white carpet made of tissue paper. You can hear the sound of the wind and snow crunching under their feet. They playfully awaken what lay dormant, opening the doors to the imagination. Suddenly a pile of papers flutters… birds fly away, the paper leaves transform into a sea raging, moons dancing, a fish spreading its wings, perhaps a dragon… Separate performances for under 3 yrs and 3 – 6 yrs. Tickets and details.
Thurs 29 May – Sun 1 June May 2025
Game Within a Game (Ceren Oran & Moving Borders)
Assembly Roxy
Thurs: 10.30am, 1.30pm; Fri: 10.30am, 4pm; Sat: 11.30am, 3pm; Sun: 11.30am, 2.30pm..
Age 3 – 7 years (40 mins).
When we play, anything is possible: the floor is made of lava, objects fly through the air and everyday items take on a whole new meaning. The stool is a raft, a bridge, a tower. It stands on its head, lies on its side, stands on its feet… From an almost infinite selection of possibilities, new worlds emerge, expand and are discarded. But how does one game lead to another? Who decides what happens next? Who makes the rules and how to make the best decision? And what happens if someone doesn’t want to take part? Three dancers get involved in this humorous and touching ‘game within a game’, exploring different rules, spaces and choices. Tickets and details.
Thurs 29 May – Sun 1 June May 2025
The Show for Young Men (Guest House Projects)
Studio Theatre
Thurs: 1.30pm, 6pm; Fri: 10.30am; Sat: 2.30pm, 6pm; Sun: 2.30pm..
8 – 14 years (50 mins).
Robbie (45) is here to work. Alfie (11) is here to have fun. They meet on a building site at dawn. Using playground games, risk-taking and mischief, they dance and play together, discovering that there are many ways to be brave and kind. Directed by Eoin McKenzie in collaboration with Robbie Synge and young performer Alfie, the show explores familiar and unexpected ideas about masculinity, connections and friendship.. Tickets and details.
Fri 30 May – Sun 1 June May 2025
Double You (Be Flat)
Portobello Town Hall
Fri: 10.30am, 7pm; Sat: 1.30pm, 7pm; Sun: 1pm, 5pm..
6 – 13 years (1 hour).
A circus performance based on the Fear of Missing Out. Five talented artists share two stages, separated by a fabric wall with the audience on either side. Shadows and sounds reach over the curtain. Why are they laughing over there? Are you missing something? A social experiment around boundaries and identity that combines circus with acro-dance, parkour, Chinese pole and hand balancing. The two simultaneous performances, mutually exclusive yet interwoven, create one universal experience, with every spectator perceiving this exciting circus show in a different way. Tickets and details.
Sat 31 May – Sun 1 June May 2025
Great Big Tiny World (Oily Cart)
Lyra
Sat/Sun: 10.30am, 1.30pm. Sat: 3.30pm..
0 – 12 months (60 mins).
Welcome to this great, big, tiny world. It may be very old, but for us it’s brand new. Settle in amongst hundreds of real plants, to watch, hear and feel the world come to life all around you. We’re all part of a connected ecosystem, where the magic happens somewhere between us. Filled with beautiful sounds, scents, music, shadows and sensory objects, even the tiniest things play an important part. The world is different, now you are here. Tickets and details.
ENDS
