Taking children's theatre seriously

On The Guardian theatre blog, Bella Todd examines the issues raised by Tim Crouch's new show, I Malvolio, for both children and adults.

...one girl started sobbing into her dad's shoulder at the sight of Malvolio with a noose in his hand … Had Crouch pushed it too far? When I spoke to him afterwards, he didn't reckon so, arguing that the world is full of adult things, and children deal with them every day – guided by sympathetic, supportive adults, on hand to help them make sense of it all. Crouch's work for children presents the adult world, and the guide too. So, on stage, when the girl started crying, Crouch was able to step out of character, smile, and say: "It's alright, it's OK, I'm not really going to go through with this."