Arts Centre Melbourne Presents Bamboozle Theatre's GENTLE GIANT, Groundbreaking Theatre For Children With Multiple And Profound Disabilities

In an Australian premiere Arts Centre Melbourne will present Bamboozle Theatre Company's Gentle Giant, an intimate, multi-sensory UK production developed exclusively for children with profound and multiple disabilities on Saturday 25 & Sunday 26 August in The Pavilion. As part of Arts Centre Melbourne's commitment to providing performing arts opportunities for young people with disabilities, the work will also be presented in school incursions at specialist schools across Melbourne.

Gentle Giant is part of Arts Centre Melbourne's program of inclusive theatre programming for audiences with a disability. Every moment in the highly sensory performance will be tailored to each child's needs by Bamboozle performers, who are highly experienced in adapting their performance and engaging with children and young people who have a variety of complex and differing needs.

Using Bamboozle Theatre Company's immersive style and adapted from Michael Morpurgo's classic tale, Gentle Giant tells the story of man - a giant of a man living in the Scottish fishing village of Ballyloch - who lives on an island in a beautiful lake. Turned away by the local villagers because he looks different, the giant leads a lonely life. Then one day he rescues a girl in a wide-brimmed straw hat from drowning and after saving her life saves the lake from disaster. The villagers see the giant's true nature, the error of their ways and participants join them in a celebration of new-found friendship and community.

The beautiful production provides a heightened sensory experience featuring live music, sea shanties and songs, puppetry, and a variety of textures and smells of life in Ballyloch, concluding with a wild dance in wheelchairs. Gentle Giant is designed for children and young people aged 6 - 14 years and each performance caters for small groups of six children and their families.

Bamboozle Theatre Company is renowned for delivering magical, memorable, multi-sensory experiences for children and young people with moderate to profound learning difficulties. Bamboozle have over twenty years' experience in developing and delivering high quality, interactive multisensory theatre experiences to captivate this audience. The company travels throughout the UK and internationally to schools, theatres and arts festivals with magical productions to reach, engage and entertain all children.

Sue Pyecroft, co-director of Gentle Giant, is the Director of Production and Design at Bamboozle Theatre which, she co-founded in 1994 with Christopher Davies. Sue has a varied and extensive portfolio of work with Bamboozle and other theatre companies in the U.K as a designer, puppeteer/maker and director. Her theatre design work includes many of Bamboozle's productions which have toured both nationally and internationally. She has recently directed Pulse, a show for both PMLD and AS audiences, which toured to special schools and theatres throughout the UK in 2018.Sue has also worked for several years with Spark Arts for Children, designing shows, directing and leading workshops. Sue has a particular interest in puppetry and she showcases her work with theatres through Dark Horse Puppetry.

Since 2014 Arts Centre Melbourne's Participation and Families programs have grown its program of accessible events including relaxed, access friendly, Auslan Interpreted and Audio described performances. Last year Bamboozle presented its work Down to Earth at Arts Centre Melbourne to great success.

"Bamboozle theatre company's shows Down to Earth in 2017 and now Gentle Giant are breaking new ground in Australian theatre, ' says Wendy O'Neill, Arts Centre Melbourne, Manager Access and Community Engagement

"Presenting theatre that's made exclusively for young audiences with multiple disability brings to life Arts Centre Melbourne's ambition that the performing arts are for everyone. Children and young people with disability can experience the wonder of the arts - many for the first time, and families and carers can be confident that they will feel welcome and their access requirements will be considered."

Arts Centre Melbourne's Access and Community Engagement team creates opportunities for people with disability to enjoy exceptional art. It presents a growing program of groundbreaking work by artists with disability, innovative theatre and immersive programs specifically for audiences with disability and access requirements. This includes magical multi-sensory theatre experiences for children and families and 'relaxed' performances, creating an environment that has been carefully adapted, is friendly, informal and embraces different audience reactions.

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