Soho theatre has announced a season of special parent and baby performances, taking inspiration from similar models adopted by cinemas that allow parents to kick back and enjoy shows with their babies in tow.
Snappily entitled Soho Screamers, the programme of extra 11:00 performances will be exclusively available to parents with children under the age of one-year-old. While the content will remain the same, the theatre will adapt the lighting to make it easy for parents to feed their babies, change nappies or walk around.
Productions included in the programme are Bridget Christie’s Foster Award-winning feminist stand-up show A bic For Her (20 November), Anthony Neilson’s dark Christmas musical The Night Before Christmas (11 December), Late Night Gimp Fight (18 December) and Luisa Omeilan’s critically acclaimed What Would Beyoncé Do?! (8 January).
Speaking about the innovative family friendly initiative, Mark Godfrey, Executive Director of Soho theatre, said: “Stephanie Moore from Mother’s Play approached us with the great idea of creating parent/guardian and baby performances, borrowing from the success of similar style cinema screenings and adapted to live performance. We’re really pleased to be able to act on this and work with her to provide a series of performances across our theatre and comedy programme, broadening access and making our work available to more people.”
As well as enabling parents and guardians to take babies to performances without worrying about any unwanted audience participation from their little ones, Soho theatre will also offer a buggy park, additional nappy changing facilities, bottle warming facilities and a special meal deal for Soho Screamers ticket holders in the Soho theatre bar after the performance.