At the rehearsal of "Elastic Emily" in Beijing, we asked the adults and children present:
"What would you do if you met someone completely different from you?"
The adults answered without hesitation. The truth in the human world is "away from him."
There was a little girl at the scene who looked into the microphone, thought about it seriously and said, "I will hug him." There are also other children's strange and extremely sincere answers: "I will ask him his name first", "I will give him a lollipop", "We will be friends"...
is adapted from the Australian genius children's book writer, "Stretchy Emily," a picture book by illustrator Stephen Michael King, tells a very simple story.
"Mr. Daydream" Henry is a messy man who likes to live a life that does not follow rules and regulations.
"Miss Logic" Amy is well behaved, but without unbridled happiness.
A child with rules is a good child? Or is a child who is unconventional a good child? There is no right answer. One day, the child with rules wanted to be imaginative, and the child with imaginative ideas wanted to learn the rules...
And so the story began.
From the first minute of the show, the children seemed to be under a spell. Almost every move of Henry and Amy could trigger the children's laughter, and the laughter continued one after another.
In Henry's eyes, a box is not a box. It can be a castle, a wave, or a sardine. But in the eyes of Amy, who is well-behaved and never makes mistakes, a box is just a box and must keep its original position. It doesn't matter if it's a little crooked.
We are completely different, but we can still be friends.
Miss Logic Amy, who was well-behaved in red suspenders, stood alone on the stage and said enviously: "Sometimes, I really want to be Henry..."
A little boy in the audience whispered Said: "But, you are also very cute
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When Amy catches the ball casually and easily like Henry, that persistent Fang breaks his own outline and boundaries at this moment, and the box can jump freely like a ball. and wander.
There are all kinds of circles and squares in the world of children. Each one speaks its own language. Some have loud voices and some have low voices. They talk "nonsense" and make friends of their own, but Sometimes it's also full of loneliness.
The black box hidden in the darkness on the stage is filled with Henry’s lonely moments.
It’s the ancestor who thinks Henry is funny, the mother who is busy cooking, and the father who has no time to listen to his words...
When the secret in the box was presented on the stage, he was laughing just now Child, lost in thought. It also makes adults feel hot: they are the most careless and stupid parents in the world...
Henry is holding a paper sailboat and moving forward in the "waves", sometimes having to avoid box obstacles. The boat is like a child. In a strong storm, maybe it will Being knocked down or knocked over, the only thing we can do is to be a safe haven for him. When he is hurt, accept his emotions, listen to his words, and give him a warm embrace.
"Whether your child is Amy, who is particularly well-behaved, or Henry, who is unruly, please listen to them."
At the end of the play, colorful ocean balls surged up from all directions accompanied by the violinist's live performance and the singing of Ode to Joy. The stage was filled with excitement, and the children were shouting loudly, "Emily, where are you?"
Emily, right on the stage, the colorful and completely different Emilys at your feet, Each one can hear different sounds when placed next to your ears, just like a child's world.
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Although adults are adults, there are still children living in their hearts
As a "square" person, after watching this drama, I seem to see that Amy and Henry are two sides of the same person. Amy has a relatively strong sense of order. , the well-behaved child who is more often accepted and liked by adults; while Henry is the other side that is uninhibited and loves freedom.
Henry is born with a talent. He is full of vitality and has countless good ideas like little lanterns. His imagination is flying, his energy has no limit, and he is always changing his game; however, when he wants to make his infinitely wonderful When he told his parents about his thoughts, no one listened, or he only got the answer from adults: "Come and do something for me, stop making trouble." His lantern slowly went out.
In the process of raising children, the nature of curiosity and love of exploration in many children is gradually stifled by their caregivers' desire to mold them into "well-behaved" little adults. We see children used to doing subtraction: Why can't they just sit still and do nothing? Why do the clothes I bring in the morning always come back so dirty? Why did he go barefoot when asked to wear socks? Why are you always going against me?
Perhaps many times, we tend to forget what we were like as children, forget that games themselves are the whole world of children, and instead use adult standards to regulate children; children find that Henry in their hearts is often not recognized and seen, and slowly let this side go. The "childish" self disappeared and became smaller, becoming countless identical Amys.
If we don’t treat children as children, maybe it’s not because we don’t know how to do it, but because we are lazy. After all, communicating with children as adults is much easier and more controllable for us. How difficult it is to take the time to understand your children's time.
What we were often taught when we were young is that learning is a serious matter, and anything else that has nothing to do with learning is useless and wrong. This gradually suppressed the nature of our own children and turned into an obedient Amy in the eyes of the so-called authority. , mature and calm that does not match his age.
Therefore, accepting the less disciplined, less "mature" and flexible self may be the beginning of accepting the child's nature. Just like countless Emily's "children" ocean balls surged out at the end of the stage, only when the ocean balls in parents' hearts are infinitely released can they raise Henry, who is elastic, flexible, and truly looks like a child.
After the play, a boy asked why the actors didn't wear shoes or socks on stage. The actor replied that in Australia we like to go barefoot, run on the grass and walk on the sand. The whole audience laughed at the cute angle of the child's question, but what came to mind was the image of the child being chased at home to put on socks and shoes. Somehow, I couldn't laugh.
hopes that the Henry in this child can be seen, appreciated, and can coexist peacefully with the Amy in his heart.
- from the little mother @zhizhi
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Photographer丨Warm light
Audience comments
"Like a child jumping in the music"
"Adults also exclaimed that it was enjoyable. "
Little Big Vision/Australian Ball and Box musical game "Elastic Emily"
Performance venue: Beijing Tianqiao Art Center Multi-functional Theater
Performance time:
Friday, December 27, 2019 19:30
December 2019 Saturday 28 December 10:30
Saturday 28 December 2019 14:30
Saturday 28 December 2019 19:30
Sunday 29 December 2019 10:30
Sunday 29 December 2019 14:30
December 2019 Sunday 29th 19:30
Monday 30th December 2019 19:30
Friday 3rd January 2020 19:30
Saturday 4th January 2020 10:30/14:30/17:30
Week 5th January 2020 Sunday 10:30/14:30/17:30
Wednesday, January 8, 2020 19:30
Thursday, January 9, 2020 19:30
Friday, January 10, 2020 19:30
Saturday, January 11, 2020 10: 30/14:30/17:30
Sunday, January 12, 2020 10:30/14:30/17:30
Recommended age: 3-8 years old
Performance duration: 45 minutes
Performance language: English (some Chinese subtitles)
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