Interview: Brigitte Aphrodite on A Message for the Future

Punk, according to Brigitte Aphrodite, is a natural home for families. Her company Crescendorious, which she founded with composer Quiet Boy (Gaz Tomlinson), has built that idea into A Message for the Future, a gig-theatre installation for 0 to 3 year olds and their grown ups. It has a soft floor, fresh herbs, water play and a rock ‘n’ roll score in surround sound. Commissioned by artsdepot and Southbank Centre’s Imagine Festival in 2025, it is now touring the UK until November. I asked Brigitte about access, noise, warm lavender bags for the adults, and what very small audiences have taught the team.

Red Bus: Your show is described as the hidden wonderland tent you might stumble on at Glastonbury at 1am, except that it is midday and there is porridge down your top. What made punk feel like the right spirit for an audience of babies and toddlers?

Brigitte Aphrodite: There’s nothing more punk than childbirth. There’s nothing more rock ’n’ roll than raising a toddler. I always say that I’m really pleased I was a party animal in my twenties, because it put me in really good stead for the sleep deprivation of having a tiny baby who doesn’t sleep… Ha!

Parents and carers are demi-gods. You know, if you want to change the world, organise action, bash through the status quo or get something done, get a group of mums to do it! If you really want to see change, get two queer mums to do it! If you want to laugh as though you’re watching the best sketch-comedy group you’ve ever seen, hang out with some parents after a baby-and-toddler group, over coffee in their local café.

Punk and rock ’n’ roll are the perfect genres for families!

Red Bus: Accessibility is described as being at the heart of the piece. What aspects were there where your access consultant’s input changed something in the design or performance that you would not otherwise have thought of?

Brigitte Aphrodite: We have an Access Consultant, Neelam Saredia-Brayley, who works mainly on pre and postshow access. I can’t ever imagine how she creates such incredibly creative information that supports parents and carers alike in every creative way. Just incredible work.

Within the show, we’ve been mentored by the sensory-theatre experts at Frozen Light, and our multi-sensory specialist, Sophie Coward, checks our props and how they are played with every step of the way.

Access is a massive part of my creative practice through lived experience. We work collaboratively together. I and another member of our team have been made to feel like we can’t go to certain theatres or work with some companies because of my disabilities.

Access informs the majority of our creative decisions in shows. Sometimes people have questioned whether centering access so deeply is “proper” theatre, but we don’t see access as an addition to the work. It is part of the art itself And honestly, I think it’s where theatre is going.
Accessible theatre is exciting, fresh and full of possibility. When you put access at the heart of the creative process, it doesn’t limit what theatre can be. It opens it up. It creates new ways of making and experiencing and invites new audiences.
For us, Creative Access Experts are as important as Lighting Designers, Sound Designers, Costume Designers and Directors. We are working towards a more inclusive theatre world where everyone is truly welcome.

Red Bus: There are warm lavender bags for the adults while the children explore. Do adults manage to relax rather than worry about noise or whether their baby will “behave”?

Brigitte Aphrodite: We take the idea of “behaving” out of the Future Garden straight away and create a space with kind access guidance. We make sure adults know that the space is for them too, and that their children and babies can express themselves there.

As a company, we use a method I read about from the legendary sensory children’s company Oily Cart. It’s called playful redirection. If a toddler is going for the saxophone at full pelt and is about to take out an usher, we playfully, quickly and gracefully redirect them. It usually works a treat! We all know how to use playful redirection during the show, including our tech team, and we explain it to the ushers and front-of-house staff.

There are certain things we’re strict about with our own team, and we work closely with venues to make sure we’re all on the same page about how to hold this audience in an accessible way. We’re passionate about the safety and wellbeing of families in the space and beyond.
So much of the time, as a parent or carer, you’re treated as though you and your child are a nuisance, as though you’re messy, in the way or too slow. We’re passionate about taking some of that pressure away in the Future Garden and theatre in general with the work we make.
I have Greek heritage and our company is very Greek in our attitude to family and children: we welcome and hold them collectively. Opa!

Red Bus: The score is rock n roll, performed in surround sound, in a space meant to feel calm and meditative. How do you make music that is spirited but soothes rather than overwhelms very young ears?

Brigitte Aphrodite: Gaz Tomlinson (aka Quiet Boy), our Sound Designer and Composer, has been in bands for years. He’s award-nominated too; he’s just received a nomination for a Fringe Theatre Award for this show and we are over the moon!

Good music soothes babies and children. There’s extensive scientific research on this, even in the womb. If you think about the perfect arc of a music gig or concert, there’s a journey and a transition. You don’t have too much of one thing for too long; there’s a whole palette of sound, so to speak. That’s how it’s done, and we test it with our audience.

For example, there was one sound that, because of the way it was mixed, made some of the mums in the research and development process feel as though their telephone was ringing! not the vibe we wanted lol! So we listened, acknowledged it and remixed it. Now it doesn’t trigger an alarm response in our audience, literally. The sound is much smoother.
The sound has been tested to ensure it’s safe and at the right decibel levels for little ears, but everyone’s ears are different, so we always have ear defenders available.

Red Bus: How does an installation built around fresh herbs, water play and touch adapt to such different spaces, and what have very small audiences taught you that surprised you?

We have our own soft floor, lights and sound. As long as we have two power points, we can make it work anywhere. We’re basically like a fully equipped wedding band rocking up! We even performed the show at We Out Here Festival in a tent, so it’s very adaptable by design. Once the design is in place, it holds the magic that happens inside it. It’s designed to hold the multi-sensory play.

The water play is tested and highly choreographed. We call our choreography with props our Director, Liv Morris (Bourgeois & Maurice), calls it “propography”. We’ve never had a water spillage but if we do have one we are all ready!
All the team are trained early years practitioners as well as multi instrumentalists and performers, so we bring both professional and lived experience. 90% of the team are also parents, and that lived experience helps.
Young audiences have surprised us with the way they work together and how undeniably creative they are. Their curiosity is wild. Once you see the world through their kaleidoscopic eyes, you can’t unsee it. Children’s theatre is magic. We have the best job in the world!

Additional images: Rosie Powell

Booking details:

Remaining tour dates:
3 to 4 October: Lakeside Theatre, Nottingham (https://www.lakesidearts.org.uk/)
17 October: Grand Junction, London W2 (https://grandjunction.org.uk/)
24 October: The Garage, Norwich (https://www.thegarage.org.uk/)
27 to 28 October: MAC (Midlands Arts Centre), Birmingham (https://macbirmingham.co.uk/)
31 October: Canterbury Festival (https://canterburyfestival.co.uk/)

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