Theatre review: This (Baby) Life, North Edinburgh Arts Centre

IF THEATRE has its roots in the adult impulse of communities to mourn their griefs and mock their rulers, it can be hard to see what this art form might have to offer very small babies.

There are glimpses of astonishing possibilities, though, in this gentle 35-minute show by the four-strong Sally Chance Dance of Australia, playing in the Imaginate children’s festival until Saturday.

Aimed at babies of four-18 months, the show involves some gentle singing – led by composer/musician Heather Frahn – along with small-scale instrumental sounds, and movement ranging from choreographed dance, to long sequences of careful mirroring of the movements of the babies themselves. And even at this very early age, the quality of the babies’ attention seems to vary along with the intensity and precision of the performance. When the dancers imitate baby movements, only the one being imitated is interested.

Yet when they stand up and perform the thrilling co-ordinated movement only adults can manage, even tiny people of six or seven months sit watching open-mouthed, absolutely attentive.

What I learned, in other words, is that babies are superb critics, with a near-perfect eye for quality in performance; and that when they are gripped by what they see, the quality of their attention is breathtaking, an object lesson to all of us grown-ups whose heads are full of the background noise of life, and who struggle to achieve that total, unselfconscious absorption in the joy of the moment.

Rating: ***