‘Our ethos is about promoting the best of theatre and dance for young people. It’s as simple as that,’ says Noel Jordan, director of the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival. Jordan travels around the world each year to find the most unique and interesting work for his event, and for 2024, the EICF is shining a spotlight on a specific region within Spain. ‘Catalonia is like us in Scotland wanting independence from a larger nation, so I think that we have a lot that we share in terms of our society and our identity.’

The thing that ultimately drew him to Catalonia, though, was the quality and diversity of their art. ‘What’s so great about this region is that the artists don’t approach works in a literal way. They’re really interested in telling narrative through very poetic, visual theatre, often with minimal to no language, which obviously suits us.’ EICF has three very different Catalan shows on offer, spanning every age range. Univers (main picture), which is aimed at babies and toddlers, looks to create an interactive sensory experience. ‘What the artists are doing is exploring the universe and the things in it,’ notes Jordan. ‘There’s this stunning lighting installation that’s lowered down and this whole sequence of looking through paper telescopes. The children pick up very quickly that they’re invited to grab a hold of these objects and play with them themselves, so it’s very hands-on.’

The shows for older children similarly invite their audiences to engage with the world around them, but this time on a more conceptual level. An-Ki, for seven to ten-year-olds, tells the story of a young girl’s experience with environmental destruction when giants invade her village. ‘We go on this beautiful promenade journey inside a tent. It’s designed for very small audiences of about 30, so we’re very intimate with the work, and it’s told largely through puppetry and visual theatre with only a tiny bit of text.’ 

Black, on the other hand, originally began as a piece for adults before being aimed at teenagers. Set in America but conceived of and choreographed by Barcelona resident Oulouy, the piece explores police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement in America through African diasporic dance forms such as krumping. ‘Often contemporary dance can be quite elusive and thematically difficult to follow, but the power of the dance and the music combined with some of the raw footage we’ve all seen on TV, like the murder of George Floyd, is palpable,’ says Jordan. ‘You really feel the anger, the sense of desperation.’

If all of this might seem like heavy topics for a children’s festival, Jordan is quick to respond that such an environment is the ideal place to introduce younger audiences to the big issues. ‘Sometimes people might see the things embedded within the stories and go “wow! That sounds very serious for a work for children!” But I think theatre is a really safe place to explore the contemporary world. We have shows that deal with the loss of siblings, and about societies or different cultures trying to find ways to communicate to each other. There’s a whole range of theatrical adventures that children, schools and families have the opportunity to experience over a one-week period.’

Univers, Assembly Roxy, Monday 27–Wednesday 29 May; An-Ki, Summerhall, Monday 27 May–Sunday 2 June; Black, Dance Base, Thursday 30 May–Saturday 1 June; main picture: Arian Botey.