We began 2025 with a strong commitment to children and young people’s theatre, launching the year with preparations for two major Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) tours: Sandscape, across the United Kingdom and France, and Waterside, in the United Kingdom. These projects shaped a vibrant first quarter defined by performance, pedagogy, and cross-cultural exchange.
Sandscape: Nature, Silence, and Shared Imagination
Sandscape is a silent performance that celebrates the beauty, fragility, and creative potential of nature. Using sand as its primary material, the work transforms simple elements into visually poetic forms that invite young audiences into a shared space of wonder and reflection. Originally developed and first performed in South Africa, Sandscape emerged from a powerful pan-African collaboration involving artists from Zimbabwe, Cameroon, and Kenya. However, this piece later went on to be shown in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Angola, South Africa, and Rwanda.
Between February and April 2025, Sandscape toured 45 performances across nine cities in the UK and four cities in France, engaging diverse audiences and communities at festivals and theatres, including:
France
- Petite et Grande, Nantes
- Théâtre de Ville, Saint-Barthélemy-d’Anjou (Angers)
- ASSITEJ Bright Generations, Marseille
- Très Tôt Théâtre Festival, Quimper
United Kingdom
- The Met, Bury
- Z-arts, Manchester
- FebFest by Full House, Luton
- Gulbenkian Arts Centre, Canterbury
- Polka Theatre, London
- Belfast Children’s Festival by Young at Art, Belfast
- Theatre Royal, Bath, The Egg.
Beyond performances, Sandscape extended into hands-on creative workshops for children, notably at the Hat Factory, Full House in Luton, where participants explored how sand can be shaped, transformed, and animated as a storytelling material. These workshops deepened children’s engagement with the performance while encouraging tactile play, imagination, and environmental awareness.
Academic and Artistic Exchange: Kininso@King’s and University of Leeds
Alongside touring, 2025 was marked by rich academic and artistic engagements. We were hosted by King’s College London, through the Global Cultures Institute, Africa Leadership Centre, and the School of Arts & Humanities, as part of Africa Week 2025. Under the banner Kininso@King’s, we participated in panel discussions, workshops, and performance excerpts that foregrounded our creative methodologies and socio-ecological concerns.
A highlight was a research-led panel discussion, exploring animism, ecology, and oil exploitation in the Niger Delta, anchored by an excerpt from Waterside. The panel brought together scholars across disciplines, including Raidat Karim, Dr. Adelene Buckland, Dr. Ella Parry-Davies, and Dr. Clement Sefa Nyarko, our Artistic Director, Joshua Alabi, and moderated by Annabel Ali. The conversation bridged theatre practice, ecocriticism, youth-led movements, and African studies.
We also facilitated a Story Development and Performance Making Workshop, adopting a decolonial approach to storytelling. Drawing on memory, lived experience, and creative fusion, participants collectively devised short performances addressing themes of migration, climate, and colonialism through song and poetry.
At the University of Leeds, the School of Performance & Cultural Industries hosted From Text to Performance, an intensive one-day workshop for undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD students. Led by Joshua Alabi, our CEO/Artistic Director, the session offered rare insight into the journey from script to stage, supported by the Faculty of Arts International Mobility/Activities Fund.
Waterside: Memory, Totems, and Life in the Niger Delta
Waterside is a layered theatrical work rooted in the cultural realities of the Niger Delta. Through themes of totems, tradition, memory, and childhood, the piece reflects on life in the creeks, examining family, taboos, and survival in a region shaped by environmental degradation and cultural resilience. An excerpt was presented at King’s College London, while the full performance was staged at Capstone Theatre, Liverpool Hope University, as part of Angel Field Festival, offering audiences a deeper encounter with the narrative world of the play.
Looking Ahead: Bread & Butter and 2026
Our work in 2025 reaffirmed our belief in performance as a bridge between people, histories, disciplines, and futures. It also marked the beginning of strategic planning for 2026, as we embark on the development of a new children’s theatre work, Bread & Butter
Bread & Butter is an immersive performance experience for young audiences that explores the cultural, emotional, and social significance of bread across households and communities worldwide. Through scent, movement, sound, and storytelling, the work examines bread as a symbol of nourishment, care, and togetherness, while opening thoughtful conversations around hunger, food insecurity, and the gradual erosion of collective family cultures of sharing and compassion in an increasingly individualistic world, a cross-cultural collaboration between our organization, Kininso Koncepts (Nigeria), and Hessisches Landestheater Marburg (HLTM, Germany). Designed for audiences aged 5 and above, the project brings together three artists from each country, supported by a small international crew, culminating in a 40-minute devised theatre piece. Its innovation lies in its fusion of sensory design, movement, and social commentary—reimagining theatre as an act of communion that resonates across cultures and generations.
Expanding Global Collaborations
As part of our continued global expansion, Kininso Koncepts is actively seeking new partners for collaborative projects in theaters, museums, public spaces, festivals, and cultural institutions worldwide. Partners interested in global cultures, innovation, stories that interrogate the status quo, and break barriers. Rooted in Africa’s rich cultural expressions and committed to international exchange, our work continues to champion children and young people as central participants in imagining more connected, equitable futures.
Prepared by Angela Peters. Head of Operations Kininso Koncepts
Photo Credit: Blessing Okunlola
