Remember that sheer joy you got from playing with a cardboard box as a kid? It could be turned into anything: a racecar, a rocket, a house or even a castle. Two decades ago, Polyglot Theatre captured the immense creative potential of the humble cardboard box and turned it up to 100 with We Built This City – a massive cardboard box construction site. And now, to celebrate its 20th anniversary, the remarkable, incredibly entertaining experience is back.
We Built This City returns to Melbourne for two days only this December in partnership with Melbourne Fringe. At its core, We Built This City is an art installation from Polyglot comprising thousands of cardboard boxes, with which participants of all ages are invited to build the city of their dreams and be as creative with their constructions as they like. All the while DJs play tunes and Polyglot's professional cardboard contruction workers roam throughout helping kids (and big kids) realise their greated paper architecture dreams.
The work was conceived by Polyglot's artistic director and co-CEO, Sue Giles, during her first year with the company back in 2001, and it has since become one of the most globally successful artworks from Australia (We Built This City has shown at Kennedy Center in Washington, the Royal National Theatre in London, and the National Theatres of Taiwan and Korea).
Giles says: "We Built This City is a totally unconventional, playful space that draws its inspiration from children’s invention and the city around it. Having toured all over the world with this production it has been fascinating to watch the children and families in each city mirror the architecture of their surroundings."
We Built This City is showing at University Square in Carlton on December 4 and 5. It's free to attend, but you must register for tickets. Sessions run for one hour daily between 10am and 3pm.