Jonathan Petherbridge, Artistic Director at South East London-based theatre company, London Bubble, is telling me a story. It involves a classroom, a young boy and the three little pigs. But, as the story progresses, the three little pigs become the three little friends… It then evolves into three little friends and a television set! Then, the three little friends in a television set… Then the three little friends in a television set with Jonathan Petherbridge!? Confused yet?
‘This was breaking all the rules!’ laughs Petherbridge, explaining that the story evolved over a number of weeks in a London classroom, and that the storyteller – a young child – was really ‘getting off on being able to emboss the story’ and in turn, was inspired to write. ‘The trouble in our country,’ Petherbridge observes, ‘is that too often we try to teach children to write and spell before we give them the desire to write. Essentially, drama and story helps to develop the imagination.’
