We know this from very old couples who have been going to the opera or drama together for decades. One of them no longer sees or hears so well. Which is why the wife, the husband, acts as a two-legged audio description. This is loving, very touching. Unfortunately also quite disturbing. One would probably not ask an elderly person or one who is dependent on such help to stop it.

The situation is different with sprightly chatterers who simply cannot adjust their need to communicate even when it has long since become dark in the hall. And then, at the very beginning of the theatre audience's career, there is a special form that could be observed everywhere between Aschaffenburg and Wiesbaden, Frankfurt and Friedrichsdorf. "Look, a cat!", "Look how funny!", "Oooooh, what is that?"

Continuous fire of parental animation attempts

These are parents who want to do everything right. There is one thing they do in the right way, for example when they have gone to the more than 130 performances of the festival "Starke Stücke". They bring their children into contact with selected, well-made theatre at an early age and want to treat them and themselves to a shared theatre experience. Especially in the family imaginations, however, one hears again and again this constant fire of parental animation attempts. What experience will stick with the children if they are allowed to experience the theatre exclusively with parental surtitles or subtitles and interpretation templates?

Some children need cuddles during their first theatrical experiences, a short whisper with mom or dad, an answer to something they don't know. Some children want to leave a performance, some want to come back after five minutes. Some sometimes need the explanation that it is worthwhile to watch quietly. To let the moment work and what happens there for eyes, ears, senses.

Anyone who has the chance to come into contact with theatre at an early age should also have the chance to feel this aesthetic experience in its effect undisguised. All the imagination, questions and interpretations that are released afterwards results in wonderful conversations between equal theatregoers of different generations – on the way home, in the foyer, at bedtime. The parents can then treat themselves to the happiness of experiencing what their child brings them back from the theatre. And maybe the child saw something completely different from a cat.