Whip-smart CHILD-ISH puts the words of kids into the mouths of adults, streaming via the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts on October 15

Sunny Drake’s verbatim theatre piece tackles topics that will move you as much as they make you laugh

The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts streams CHILD-ISH on October 15 at 7:30 pm.

THE CONCEPT is brilliant: take children’s exact words about love, life, and the world and perform them through the mouth of adults.

The Shadbolt Centre is giving you a rare chance to see the result of Toronto-based writer-creator Sunny Drake’s fun but often moving and serious verbatim theatre project in an online-only performance October 15.

He draws the text directly from interviews with more than 40 whip-smart and brutally honest children, as they hold court on topics as loaded as marriage, friendship, death, racism, and more. Adding to the experiment is that the dynamite adult cast performs these words in a playground setting in this filmed production—aimed at an adult audience that promises to be equally surprised and educated.

This is just one piece of Drake’s larger CHILD-ISH project that includes a web series, an upcoming podcast, a live performance and an inter-generational process.

Tune in to see what lessons can come out of the mouths of babes.

Articles

Celebrated drag artist Wet Mess leans into confusion and complexity with TESTO

The London-based performer reveals the struggle and growth behind the bold, disarming visions of their latest show, now on its way to PuSh Festival

At HOLD ON LET GO, Anjela Magpantay unpacks the weight of gifts and absence

In her show titled it is for when you meet me, the creator and performer explores what it means to give and receive through the Filipino tradition of pasalubong and balikbayan boxes

Actor-playwright Faly Mevamanana embraces the weird in The Baking Show Show: The Play

In this left-field comedy, the obsessive lead character is driven by the same perfectionism that her creator has learned to leave aside in life

Theatre review: You’re Just a Place That I Know is a moving musical reflection on family and memory

Based on Adrian Glynn McMorran’s album of the same name, the show at the Arts Club’s BMO Theatre Centre is more than just a concert

Theatre review: Comedic snap of Metro Theatre’s Barefoot in the Park gives retro setting a timeless resonance

Sharp dialogue and restless energy, prodded on by the little irritations of married life, result in cozy yet unsettling laughs

Ventriloquist Michael Harrison embraces the magical escapism of puppetry

Ahead of his Anvil Theatre show, the long-time cruise-line performer talks about dispelling childhood fears with lovable characters

Review: Liquid limbs and mesmerizing visual magic at Recirquel’s Paradisum

In DanceHouse and The Cultch co-presentation, the Hungarian company is full of flowing bodies and rippling fabric

Blackout Art Society’s English looks at language and belonging, January 23 to February 1 at the Firehall

Sanaz Toossi’s play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2023 for its look at four students preparing for the TOEFL

At the Advance Theatre Festival, Alexandra Lainfiesta uses magic realism to explore the personal sacrifices of immigration

Latinx theatre artist’s debut script unfolds across three worlds: Toronto, Antigua Guatemala, and a realm in which the immigration system functions like a game show