Crazy but True
Crazy but True
Crazy but True
Crazy but True
Crazy but True
Crazy but True
Crazy but True

Crazy but True

An insatiable hunger for unlikely facts: it’s something we all share, but children of a certain age are especially drawn to the 'crazy but true' genre, and liable to amass and trade such extraordinary information before eventually recounting it to peers, parents – passing it on...

Crazy But True is an interactive installation for children from ages 8 – 11: a panel of experts in conversation. The children, as these “experts”, are given their lines via headphones, repeating what they hear into microphones, without rehearsal. What results is a rolling list of extraordinary facts disguised as a conversation – some serious, others plain funny.

Sometimes it seems the world gets weirder every year. Crazy But True exposes our part in that – us, the humans, who have gone before them and who now sit before them, in the seats, watching and listening. From the outside, the reality of the situation is transparent: children agreeing “to say whatever they're told to say”. Information being funnelled into their ears, through their brains, and out of their mouths. If, despite the fun, this seems problematic, the provocation is consistent with the wider aim of the work: to face up to an inevitable challenge... For many adults it’s hard to imagine a child growing up and absorbing this kind of information. Bringing a child into the world is perhaps the easy part. More difficult is how to bring the world into a child.

As the facts switch and roll, we start to feel the fearlessness of a child's wonder alongside their willingness to absorb what the world has to offer, no matter how crazy it seems. For the adults watching, there’s a sense of being both “outside” this game and yet deeply involved in (or responsible for) the world it describes. For the kids, it’s above all a funny and engaging fantasy of owning the kind of knowledge they may already be collecting. Some may even develop a sense that there are reasons why some of the information is not often heard.

The performance will take place from 4 to 7 pm, and you can attend it any time and remain as long as you feel like.

In Czech without translation. Discussion with the artist after the performance in the New Stage foyer.

Performing artists

Ant Hampton
Ant Hampton

United Kingdom

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