“Boxes, bubble wrap and bananas all add up to a fabulously fun show about rules and how they can be confusing… A wonderfully playful and engaging production that invites a young audience to think about how unspoken rules exist in society, and how behaviours can be different for different people… A cleverly considered piece of work that is full of laughter but also full of interesting questions… A playfully positive way to imagine a world where we’re all included and, with a little effort, everyone’s way of being can be accommodated.”
Everything Theatre

“Humorous, fun and engaging… a joyful show of opposites that turns the rules quite literally upside down”
Kirsty Tidmus, Lakeside Arts Young Critics Collective programme

“Ten stars out of five!”
Audience member

“Fantastic show, brilliant expressions and acting. Kept captivated throughout.”
Audience member

“The show is funny and I wanted to watch it again”
Audience member

“It was such a stimulating (and thought-provoking show) and my boys continue to refer back to it playfully. Our eldest has dyspraxia and the subtlety of the rules seen/followed or disruptive to individuals was such a topical subject for us all, in such a wonderful format. I was unaware at the time of booking how relevant your show might be to us as a family – I hope that many more families (children and adults) benefit from your wonderful show. We will look out for further performances by your company.”
Audience feedback

“We liked how many bananas you ate!”
Audience member

“A great performance about difference”
Audience member

“This is the best show we’ve seen in a long time! It was hilarious and touching at the same time. My little boy and I laughed a lot during the performance. Thank you for a morning well spent and for allowing us a glimpse into the world of people who experience the world differently and that we can all learn to live together in harmony if we try to understand each other.”
Audience member

“This is a really funny, entertaining piece of work – also a wonderful experience of normalising disability for children and encouraging them to think about how others share their space. Plus, there are bananas! 🍌🍌”
Audience member 

“We really enjoyed it, and thought the show was so well done. Everything from the rules at the start of the show through to the interactive parts at the end were so well thought out. So effective, expressive, funny and enjoyable, my kids were enthralled!”
Audience member 

Background to Boxed In

This piece, previously called An Unseen World, grew out of our participation in A Different Way, a 2019-2020 disability advocacy project curated by Daryl & Co (then Daryl Beeton Productions) in partnership with the Spark Festival, Leicester. The project aimed to address the lack of disability representation in work for young audiences.

Through the project, we demonstrated new approaches when creating work for young audiences by disabled theatre makers that place the voice of young disabled people at the heart of the approach; explored new ways of communicating the different nuances of access and inclusion to young audiences; and aimed to support the growth and development of theatre for young audiences in their approach to making work with, rather than for, disabled young people.

For this project, Half Moon’s Director, Chris Elwell acted as a mentor and dramaturg for An Unseen World exploring non-verbal creative narratives around unseen barriers faced by disabled people, using design and metaphor as a key communication tool.

Following a period of research and development development work with the partner school, Globe Primary in Bethnal Green, the work-in-progress piece was due to be presented at a sector-wide symposium in Leicester in April 2020. Due to the pandemic, this became an online event and the piece was filmed to share. This filmed version was the basis of the reworked piece, Boxed In.

Interview on Everything Theatre

Exploring inclusion with bubble wrap and bananas
Interview with Mary Pollard Mary, Everything Theatre

Daryl & Co are packing up ready to set off around England with their fabulously fun show Boxed In. It’s an exciting collaboration between this disabled-led theatre company, led by Creative Director Daryl Beeton, and specialists in productions for young people, the Half Moon Theatre.

ET reviewed the show in an earlier incarnation, but we wanted to find out more about what they have packed into it for this new tour, so pulled Daryl in for a chat.

Hi Daryl. Thanks so much for talking to us about Boxed In. Can you give us a flavour of what the show is about? I suspect you’re going to say ‘bananas’…

Yes, there are quite a few bananas, bubble wrap and plenty of boxes! Boxed In is a quirky children’s show that follows the journey of someone who is made to feel naughty, just because the rules don’t make sense. It explores neurodiversity in a playful and inventive way.

Boxed In is predominantly non-verbal, using very limited words, such as ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. It’s a highly visual show that uses movement, visual storytelling, humour and a touch of chaos to explore the invisible rules of behaviour, the way people act and what others think you should do – and invites us all to imagine a world where everyone feels they belong.

What kind of performance styles do you find work well with the 3-6 years age range?

All our work at Daryl & Co. is mainly non-verbal and visual. We don’t make shows about ‘issues’, but our approach is to allow audiences to create their own solutions to the themes we present. But this can only happen if our young audiences have engaged with and enjoyed a story that is playful, emotional and relevant to their lives.

So, our productions don’t educate, as such, advocating instead that there are not always correct answers or solutions when talking about or addressing prejudice, social injustices, equality and social inclusion.

Like any good story, Boxed In allows the audience to join up their own dots, think creatively and ask questions so they can discover their own answers to complex issues, even at an early age, through experiencing a high-quality theatre adventure.

Our focus is always on inclusivity and relevance, taking the young audience on an engaging and emotional journey presented in a relaxed format in a variety of venues, increasing opportunities for audiences who may not have engaged with live theatre before, due to the social barriers that surround it.

Your productions are disabled-led, with inclusion and, importantly, fun at the centre of what you do. What challenges does this set you as a performer and creator?

The biggest challenge and joy when making work is the process of boiling down the theme, narrative and visual storytelling to its essence and then ensuring that it allows our young audiences to connect aspects of their own lives to it, making it feel relevant whilst also accessible.

The biggest and most annoying challenge is actually the inaccessibility of touring. We have to be careful about where we tour to and how we get there. A lot of venues are only accessible for audiences and not backstage!

Talk us through the devising process for Boxed In and how you used input from young children to create the show.

Children have been heavily involved in the creation of this show since 2018. Boxed In undertook two phases of R&D between 2018 and 2022 before touring the full production in 2024.

The original periods of R&D began with a residency at Globe Primary, Tower Hamlets, where we explored unspoken rules with children and asked them to help us create a story about someone that breaks the rules. This was followed by an R&D performance to continue a creative dialogue which valued the voices of young people, enabling them to be our creative partners in the creation of this work.

Our approach values the voices of young people and the story, so instead of being didactic, the show is engaging and creative.

Can you tell us about the set design and how it helps the audience to negotiate the story?

The design uses everyday objects that are common and well known to our young audiences, such as boxes, bananas, tape and symbols such as arrows or other visual clues. All of these mean the audience can instantly relate to what’s on stage. It’s then about how the characters interact with them and give them meaning.

For example, one character’s frustration on not being able to find the ‘right way up’ of a box allows our audience to connect and feel the frustration of ‘getting it wrong’.

You’re taking the show on tour this summer to places across the country stretching from London to Sheffield and back again. Has your choice of venues ever been limited by their ability to fully meet access needs, for example with yourself using a wheelchair?

Yes, we are always aware of which venues are accessible. Our access rider states that the venue and performance space need to be step free for both audience and performers, so we must only tour to venues that can meet our requirements.

Is Boxed In also going to be available to people who can’t get out to the theatre?

Yes, once the tour is over on Sunday 28 June 2026 you can watch it On Demand via the Half Moon website. We make the digital version of our shows because we are aware that going to see shows at venues is still inaccessible for a lot of people! At the start of 2025, the On Demand version was featured in The Guardian newspaper as one of their best theatre shows to stream online.

This interview first ran on Everthing Theatre