A couple of years ago I had a collaboration with Teater Barbara and their child performance Barbie-Niels and the gun problem.
A piece based on the Norwegian author Kari Tinnen's book. It was the first child performance the theatre created and the theme of the play was identity and gender.
The story is about a boy who most of all wants a Barbie on his birthday and the father's expectations of his son. " Of course he wants a gun for his birthday and not a Barbie!" Before my collaboration with this theatre I had seen several other children's performances that includes gender perspectives.
But unfortunately the message often gets too simplified. "Girls can certainly do everything the boys can do and boys can do everything like the girls!" With shifting characters, children often reveal they are cheated.
They understand that the characters only swap gender. This story about Niels, opens up an opportunity for a more complicated content.
The theatre wanted to create something good and they contacted me for cooperation. We worked it out so that Barbie-Niels got the status for his feminine sides,“how cool that Barbie could fly from second floor, and what a beautiful bed she has!” The role of the father was important as it could make the adults start reflect on them self.
"Would I support my son and what would other adults think about me as a daddy if my son wanted a doll?"
Are we going to give the children new standards of what's right or wrong, or can we raise questions about what's important when we are breaking norms that feels new and weird?
Niels dad begins to play with a gun in the store.
He enjoys it and remember himself playing cowboy when he was a child, but Niels has no interest in it. I think many of us played this cowboy game in the childhood but now we understand what weapon causes.
Should we tell the children not to play those games, or should we try to investigate what the excitement is about and then start to discuss together with the children about weapon, Barbies and values.
If we let children express their thoughts and tell them how we think, we might have children that starts to learn to solve problem with equality instead of being obedient to us.
After the premiere a discussion was held between the director, the actors, the author, a psychologist and me. If you like you can watch it.
The performance was a success and toured around Sweden for a long time.