TANGLE

Most things to do with kids get themselves in a tangle – so why not have some fun with it? The Festival First Night for 2012 will feature an installation that is one part interactive sculpture, one part performance, courtesy of experiential theatre creators, Polyglot. Simon Abrahams from the Tangle team tells us more…

What sparked the inspiration for Tangle? Polyglot’s Artistic Director Sue Giles was walking through a park in winter, looked up at some beautiful bare trees and thought to herself, “what if they were all connected by beautiful coloured elastic” and the idea just grew from there.  Polyglot loves making extraordinary giant artworks out of simple materials and we wanted to make something that would make people see places they look at everyday in new ways.

How important is interactivity to children’s entertainment? We believe that hands on art making is the most interesting for kids because it empowers them to make decisions which have a real impact.  Interactive work is so much for engaging, more fun, more powerful.

What will the kids be ‘creating’? The kids will make a giant messy, tangled spiders web out of thick multi-coloured elastic – they can get inside it and play within it – it’s like a messy scribble drawing but in three dimensions and you can get inside of it.  It’s very abstract but more fun than you can imagine.

What roles do they performers play? Inside the space are four performers who play the part of the Weavers – they are there to improvise routines and make sure everyone has as much fun as possible.  There’s also a live musician to bring the whole space to life.

And what is one thought you hope young and old alike will take away with them? That the only thing you need to have fun is imagination.

Jan 7 (as part of Festival First Night), 3-5.30pm, Hyde Park, Sydney, free, sydneyfestival.org.au/2012