MOMMY, DON'T GET ANGRY!

The playroom is divided into stations, with each station representing a different theme in the child - mother (parent) relationship: from processing emotions, to love, understanding social norms, obedience, acceptance, setting boundaries, raising awareness of the fears that both adults and children are faced with.
Stations represent simulated situations from everyday life in pre-set board games. The experience is created when the child and the parent perform certain tasks at individual stations throughout the game, and during this process intimate ideas, emotions, ideas of their own are born. In this way, they actively co-create the content and simultaneously deepen and get to understand their relationship. The joint experience enriches and connects the participants in their own way.

The ‘Mommy, don't get angry!’ playroom includes experiential learning through play, observation, imitation, and execution of tasks that consist of children’s and parents’ reflections. They go through this process of experiencing and co-creating as a child - mother couple, which generates a multi-layered experience: emotional, cognitive, and developmental. The story that each individual spectator experiences is not predetermined, because the spectator shapes the story himself in line with his/her own experience of the child - mother relationship, past experiences, ideals, desires, etc.
In sum, ‘Mommy, don't get angry!’ is a polygon that by combining theatrical, artistic and social elements takes visitors, who have an active role as co-creators of their own experience, on a journey to explore the child - parent (or child - mother) relationship and the role they play in this relationship.

Age: 2 years +
Duration: 60 minutes

Concept and implementation: Katja Kähkönen, Mateja Ocepek, Katja Povše
Production: AEIOU Theater
Collaborator: Children's Cultural Center Rulla, City of Tampere
Premiere in Finland: May 4, 2017, Haihara Cultural Center, Tampere
Premiere in Slovenia: February 7, 2018, House of Children and Arts, Ljubljana

The project was supported by The Finnish Cultural Foundation and The Pyynikki Summer Theater Foundation.