Walking the Tightrope

Story

Every summer Esme comes to stay with her nanna and granddad but this year nanna is gone and it isn’t the same. Grandad can’t tell Esme that Nanna is dead so he says that she has gone to join the circus.

Why we chose it

Mike Kenny is an acclaimed playwright who writes extensively for young audiences. Written for primary age children, Walking the Tightrope sensitively and honestly explores grief and loss and how to talk about them.

Where it came from

Growing up on a council estate miles from a theatre, Mike Kenny saw his first play aged 17 but knew then that that was what he wanted to do. He trained as a teacher and worked for Leeds Playhouse Theatre in Education, taking plays into schools in Leeds and seeing at first hand how children react to live theatre - and discovering that children are the most honest audience there is. He says that he writes plays for the child he was, for children who don’t usually go to the theatre. His plays include works for adults and huge community productions but he specialises in writing plays for young audiences Although he enjoys adapting books and traditional stories for the stage, he is an advocate for new writing and for playwrights being given the opportunities to tell their own, new stories.

Where it went next

Walking the Tightrope won a number of awards for outstanding production and performance for theatre for young audiences. It was the first recipient of Arts Council England’s Award for Playwriting for Children and Young People.

It is Mike Kenny’s most performed script and has been translated into a number of languages and performed all over the world.

Mike Kenny was on the Independent on Sunday’s list of top ten living playwrights

Associated stories

Mike Kenny’s adaptation of The Railway Children, staged in the National Railway Museum by York Theatre Royal went on to win an Olivier award. Other plays for children include Flat Stanley, Boy with a Suitcase, Three Wise Monkeys, Electric Darkness, Underneath a Magical Moon, Random Selfies, In Fog, Stepping Stones and Falling Snow.

Plays for teens include adaptations of The Odyssey, Solace of the Road by Siobhan Dowd and Cow Girl by Giancarlo Gemin.