QPAC

Wonderbox is a multi-sensory immersive theatre performance created with and for children and young people with disability, and their family and friends.

Wonderbox is suitable for audience members 6 years and older.

Each performance of Wonderbox caters for up to 15 children and their carers and is fully accessible for wheelchair users.

All performances of Wonderbox are relaxed performances, with audiences invited to sit or move around freely within the performance space and the adjacent chill-out zone, outside the performance space, which features comfortable seating and minimal sound.

The performers use multi-modal communication including key signs, natural gesture, visual symbols and minimal verbal language. The show is highly visual with a rich aural environment and many opportunities for individual engagement and interaction through the senses.

Sensorium has been making multi-sensory theatre shows for children with disability for over a decade now and are considered leaders in the field internationally. Their performers undergo an extensive training process to develop their capacity to respond and adapt their performance to the access and support needs and communication preferences of each audience member.

The show themes for Wonderbox are curiosity, choice, wonder.

Audiences are invited to experience the delight of opening boxes and discovering what is inside.
All sorts of sensory experiences will be offered to invite audience members curiosity – the choice to or not to participate or engage is always respected and celebrated.

The show has a soft opening within a space adjacent to the performance area. Here, each child is welcomed and has the opportunity to roll the dice and be sung to by their name.

The adjacent space is also a chill out zone with comfortable seating and minimal stimulation and audience members are welcome to take time out of the performance space whenever they need and to re-enter at any time.

Visual Elements include video projections, infinity boxes and optical illusions.

Sound Elements include live music, singing and instruments (piano, accordion and mandolin) as well as small sound making objects such as music boxes.

Tactile elements include silk, fur, rough textures, there is a foam floor covered in canvas and small stools for sitting on.

Smells that are contained within small boxes and do not permeate the space as a whole.

Kinesthetic Elements – audience members can move freely at all times or sit as desired. At certain times, audience members are invited to participate in dancing and moving, including a game where they can crawl through open boxes. There is no requirement to participate.

Potential Negative triggers
There are no special effects such as smoke machine, bubbles or strobe.
There are no balloons.
There is no total blackout – soft lighting is used throughout.

Download the Visual/Social Story for Wonderbox