BABYLATERNA is Now Playing at the Estates Theatre in Prague

Toddlers aged 6 months to 3 years and their adult companions will enter the theatre, which will turn into babies' magic world - tempting, charming and inviting to make new discoveries. This is no common storytelling. We will show toddlers comprehensible situations through non-verbal language, dance and objects to encourage their curiosity. Inspired by everyday life, BabyLaterna targets the basic senses of the youngest audience, owing to which they can discover and recognise the sounds, colours, shapes and firmness or softness of the things around them. The production retains a dramatic form, so the toddlers will experience their first contact with true theatre. As a non-verbal production, BatoLaterna is comprehensible for all toddlers and accompanying adults, whatever their mother tongue. While theatre for babies and toddlers is enjoying a great boom abroad, it is still fairly rare in the Czech Republic. BabyLaterna is the very first production of this kind to be held at The National Theatre in Prague.

Each show takes approximately 35 minutes. If interested, you children can spontaneously join in the stage action for a while. However, please keep an eye on them at all the times, and if they disturb the play too much or set off to explore the dark corners of the backstage, take them back into your arms. Once the stage is filled with coloured balls, the show ends and playtime begins, when you can let your children enjoy our props and objects on the stage. Yet, please, ensure safety of your children during this part of BabyLaterna as well and make sure they do not remove the props from stage or even take them home.

To remember your child's first theatre experience, the printed brochure includes a sheet of interactive games for toddlers. Inside, you will find a matching game ('Pexeso') and a QR code leading to music tracks for the offered activities, reminding of our performance. Available is also a haptic accordion book Tik Tap, featuring motives and objects that appear in BabyLaterna.

Practical information for the performance visitors

BabyLaterna is a production for toddlers aged 6 months to 3 years, accompanied by at least one adult. Children older than 3 years, who are interested in other type of theatre, might lose concentration while watching BabyLaterna and search for other ways to entertain themselves. Older children are expected to respect the theatre rules (e.g. they should not run or shout in the theatre, etc.). The visitors and their children will sit on the stage, either on cushions, or on seats. We would like to ask the adult companions and children to walk on the stage without shoes, which can be left in the auditorium. A special space in the New Stage foyer, monitored by the theatre staff at al times, will serve for storing baby carriages. Also available will be baby changing tables and nappy disposal bins.

After the performance, lasting approximately 35 minutes, the children and adults will be invited to play games 15-minute freely follows on the stage.