Doncaster’s new Blanket Fort Club smashes down barriers to access in children’s theatre

The Blanket Fort Club is the brainchild of South Yorkshire theatre maker George Stone. She first had the idea for the show during lockdown, when she spent endless days building huge blanket forts with her autistic son and his younger sister.

The show, which will be on at CAST on April 11-13, has been designed to be entirely accessible for all children including those with complex needs and disabilities.

The Blanket Fort Club is a 60-minute sensory, immersive experience that will see characters guiding the audience through tactile spaces in a living, breathing, sonic world of blankets.

Guests will discover the Three Little Pigs in the story room, splash through the puddles in the rain corridor and construct a castle in the building room. Once they have journeyed through the blanket fort, all they will need is a sheet and their imagination to return.

George said: “I’ve been chucked out of theatres because my autistic son, Jake, was enjoying himself too much - or not enough - and it was too loud for them. I think there are plenty of parents who will empathise with that, and I wanted to create a space that your children can enjoy no matter what their needs are.

“The Blanket Fort Club has its own character depending on who is experiencing it. So there’s a more sensory-led experience, one that is more quest-based, there’s a story room, parachute play, dancing… and as you return through the ‘rooms’ of the Blanket Fort they reinvent themselves.

“The idea is all about transitions, about beautiful moments we share together and that they might not last forever but they’re still really special.”

The Blanket Fort Club uses innovative “sensory maps” to involve the audience in their journey, using a character guide to explore story and theme through tactile spaces. With some maps being more quest-based than others, each has been designed to engage the senses and encourage playful interaction with characters and the Blanket Fort Club’s world.

Transitions from space to space are part of the magical experience, with the blanket fort inviting us through intriguing light, sound and tactile elements. At brief times, the maps weave together, celebrating connections and enriching concepts around the beauty of transient moments.

The Blanket Fort Club has a broad appeal, offering a cosy sanctuary for some and an endlessly playful and absorbing activity for others, smashing down barriers to access. It is for children aged 5-8 and all children who would encounter barriers to access in traditional theatre experiences including children with complex needs and disabilities and Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities (PMLD). It would be perfect for a school group or an experience shared with parents, carers and friends.

Before arriving at CAST in Doncaster on 11-13 April, the Blanket Fort Club will be hosted by neighbourhood arts centre RivelinCo at Burton Street Foundation in Sheffield on 30 March and 1 April, and then Enterprise Works in Meadowhall on 3-6 April. Tickets are available at theblanketfortclub.co.uk