Moon and Genie was developed as part of the Exchange for Change programme and was presented on the Festival Day, 16 July 2009 and subsequently went on to tour nationally in 2013.
A Note from the Author:
I remember taking my children when they were small to my own (adult) productions and to pantomimes and children’s shows. Theatre was part of their lives, but I never attempted to write anything for under 5s. So when Half Moon approached me to consider writing this play, I was intrigued and challenged. My children, now teenagers, were horrified by the idea and asked me if Half Moon knew the sort of plays I wrote; contemporary, foul mouthed and violent at times. This of course only succeeded in making me more determined. The session with Jo Belloli which kick-started the whole process was a fascinating and rich day. We began to explore ideas together to attempt to get into the heads of younger children, their preoccupations, their fears and their perspectives. I learnt a lot, notwithstanding the misconception that under 5s need to be ‘talked down’ to. Going to the nursery was good fun and reminded me how smart under 5s are! I had already decided to write about food and eating as a family. I was interested in the fact that a lot of children are fascinated by cooking and want to help their parents. So I was beginning to think about textures of food, colours, favourite dishes, hunger and rumbling tummies!
The idea for the script came fairly early on in the process. I was aware that creating the atmosphere and setting up stage directions were more important than scripting long passages of dialogue. For a longer piece I’d be interested in developing the idea of where different food comes from in the world and, of course, the different food and the different ways in which we eat, be it using cutlery, chopsticks or fingers.