Little Top

Starcatchers and SUPERFAN present Little Top – a magical first circus experience for babies from birth to 18 months and their adults.

Baby watching an artist perform in Little Top

This show is amazing! It’s just lovely. My one-year-old was captivated.” “... While the dancer in blue danced around the space my babies face was beautiful! (full of wonder!)

Audience Member

Little Top is currently on tour, to Norway, Belfast and France.

Little Top will be presented at the Premières Rencontres Festival as part of the UK/France Spotlight on Culture programme, supported by the British Council.

Supported by Made in Scotland and the British Council.

Little Top will transport you to a playful, joyous, upside down, topsy-turvy world where people can fly, patterns fill the air and anything is possible.

At a time in their development when young children are discovering their own physicality and the pleasures and perils of gravity, Little Top invites babies to experience spectacular balances, astonishing tumbles and inventive juggling in a specially-designed set that miniaturises the magic of the Big Top.

Little Top’s beautiful set creates a colourful, cosy and welcoming space where professional circus acrobats, tumblers and jugglers perform up close in babies’ line of sight, making eye contact, and interacting and responding to their young audience.

Young baby copies artist's movements while sitting on the floor during a performance of Little Top

Creative Team and Cast

Co-Creator / Director | Ellie Dubois
Co-Creator / Performer | Kim Donohoe
Set and Costume Designer | Becky Minto
Performer | Arron Sparks
Performer | Gabrielle Cook
Performer | Nat Whittingham
Lighting Designer / Production Manager | Michaella Fee
Composer / Sound Designer | Kim Moore
Performer (August 2019) | Laura Bradshaw

Press

The babies, accompanied by parents and carers, are settled within the miniature, magical, fairy-lit version of a traditional big top. It’s fascinating to watch how their attention is held by the 40-minute show, the way they respond to it and each other, and the pleasure they take in the opportunity to play with the equipment alongside the performers for 20 minutes afterwards. Starcatchers’ Little Top, a first circus experience for babies, is but one of an increasing number of superb quality shows made for the very young.

Lyn Gardner

Audience feedback

Performances

Little Top toured Scotland in 2019 and in 2022 and was a sell out show at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019. Little Top was invited to perform at Assitej World Congress in Japan in 2020, but unfortunately this was postponed due to the pandemic.

Tour 2022: Platform, Glasgow | FTH Theatre, Falkirk | Cumbernauld Lanternhouse Theatre | Birnam Arts | Eden Court, Inverness | The Barn, Banchory | MacRobert Arts Centre | Regal Reconnect Theatre, Bathgate | Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock | Boat of Garten Hall, Highlands | Tramway, Glasgow | Perth Theatre | Lemon Tree, Aberdeen.

Edinburgh International Children’s Festival 2022

Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2019

Tour 2019: Cumnock Town Hall | Palace Theatre, Kilmarnock | Platform, Glasgow | Eastwood Park Theatre, Giffnock | Howden Park Centre, West Lothian | Byre Theatre, St Andrews | Johnstone Hall, Johnstone | Birnam Arts, Dunkeld | Lyth Arts Centre | Forres Town Hall, Forres | The Studio, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh | FTH Theatre, Falkirk | Aberdeen Music Hall | MacRobert Hall, Tarland | Lochgelly Centre | Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline.

For future touring availability and requirements, please contact us.

Promoters Pack available to download here.

Related Articles

  • Kim Donohoe – creating inspiring & ground-breaking performances for young children

    Kim Donohoe is passionate about early years theatre and committed to “pushing the boundaries” of what kind of performances can inspire very young children.   As co-creator of Little Top Kim will ensure the show’s creative development is guided by the needs and interests of its target age group (0-18 months). As well as taking ideas directly into nurseries […]

  • Introducing Ellie Dubois – Co-creator & Director of Little Top

      There are artists across the world who are reinventing traditional notions of what modern circus can be and the award-winning Ellie Dubois is certainly one of them.   Named as one of the British Council’s ‘Artists to watch 2017’, her most recent work No Show features an all-female cast of circus performers and won a Herald […]

Supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland