A Special Trade

Bartholomew and Nelly are not just neighbors, they’re best friends. Every day, Bartholomew pushes Nelly in her stroller around the neighborhood. They especially like getting sprayed by Mrs. Pringle’s sprinkler and going over Mr. Oliver’s bumpity-bump-bump driveway. And when Nelly grows up and Bartholomew grows old their joy in being together continues, no matter what. For this story of two people, from two generations, shows better than most, what it truly means to be friends forever.

“The beauty of performing for this age is that we get them before they have been imprinted with cultural blinders. At [a preschool] age, a child in Zimbabwe has the same responses as a child in Colombia or in Indonesia. They are open and they go with you.”-Christer Dahl

“[Children] are processing everything they see and they need the space, and the time to sort it all out. So, when we do a show, it has to have clean lines. It’s like a triangle. You have the actors, the props and the audience. There’s no fourth wall separating us.”-Ing-Mari Tiren, from Docteatern Tittut

“[A Special Trade] is a winsome and lovely bit of storytelling, a gentle and empowering tale about friendship, and a theatrical experience as satisfying for its intended audience of preschoolers as it is for the grown-ups who bring them.”-St. Paul, Pioneer Press