Review: THE GIFT, Citizen's Theatre

The Gift is a piece of theatre for under 5s presented by Glasgow-based company Barrowland Ballet. The Gift has been seen before in Edinburgh but finally has a home in Glasgow in the redeveloped Citizens’ Theatre studio space. 

The Gift is created, directed and choreographed by Natasha Gilmore and features performers Joanne Pirrie and Rander Martins. 

It’s Christmas morning, and a child opens their stack of colourful presents. There’s genuine joy, along with polite thank-yous, for the slightly less exciting items. But there are certainly a lot of parcels to open. When the offstage parent goes to get batteries for a particularly shiny remote-controlled car, the fun really begins. 

While the child seems to have everything they want for Christmas, they’re clearly lonely. When one of the cardboard boxes captures her imagination, a whole new world of play opens up. Discarded wrapping, ribbon and cardboard boxes become the most interesting things, and we are treated to 40 minutes of gorgeous, inventive dance theatre. 

There’s acrobatics and clowning and the little ones in the audience are enthralled throughout. The Gift is well-paced, so nobody loses interest and it builds to a really lovely finale that provokes a real sense of awe across all ages. There’s an option to sit on the floor up close or in the tiered seating for the performance but at the end the wee ones are invited onto the stage to play.

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