Take 5 with HurlyBurly Theatre

One of our 2025 In-House Artists, Brighton-based HurlyBurly Theatre, create music driven work for babies and their parents and carers, allowing the grown-ups to relax while the babies are free to explore and play.

We caught up with Co-Artistic Directors, Catherine Carter and Sarah Forbes ahead of their residency in the new year...

1. Tell us a bit more about HurlyBurly Theatre and how it came about?

We worked together on a show called 16 Singers by Kitty Morley which gave us both our first experience of theatre for babies. While Sarah was pregnant with her second baby and Catherine recently had her first, we were offered a commission by Celebrate Voice to create a performance for their festival for 0-2s.

We put our first show together in our living rooms with babies attached to us and a toddler running around, leaving destruction in his wake! This meant we instinctively knew what babies and their parents really needed; we're sure this is why our first piece Over the Moon was so successful with audiences... venues also appreciated that everything we needed literally fit into a large carrier bag!

2. What do you hope babies and their parents and carers will get out of the experience of attending a show?

We want people to feel relaxed and welcome - there are no rules during the show about sitting still or being quiet. We work with whatever our audience gives us. It’s also really important to us that the experience is as much for the parent as the child.

The music and the themes that we work with are rich and have a lot of depth, leaving space for the adults in the room to think and feel whilst the singing and multisensory elements engage the children.  

3. Can you give us a peek into some of the things you’ll be working on during your In-House Artist residency?

We’re at the beginning of creating our fifth show and want to make our work even more accessible through more of the material being improvised and giving the audience opportunities to influence what happens during the experience.

We’ll be exploring making a show where the audience can come and go over a longer period of time, and love the idea of a carnival for babies and parents where we can celebrate the enormous changes that happen when you become a parent. We take a long time making our shows, so there’s a way to go until we get to the final product!

4. What are you looking forward to about working with Brighton Dome?

We’re excited to meet the whole team at Brighton Dome - staff, artists and audiences. We want to build a community in Brighton and begin to have more of a presence here. Although we have performed all over the country and the world (we’ll be at Sydney Opera House in 2025!), we have only performed in Brighton once before.

It will be great to establish ourselves more, get more involved with the artist community in Brighton and begin to develop an audience for our work in Sarah’s home city. 

5. In three words, describe what babies and their grown-ups can expect from a HurlyBurly show?

Play. Connection. Beautiful music. (We cheated!)