One Tenth Human and China Plate present

We’re Stuck!

A show for 8-11 year olds, inspired by the extraordinary abilities and limitations of our brains when it comes to Maths.

#StuckPlay

Run time: 70 minutes

Age: 8-11 year olds

Content warnings: WARNING: there may be numbers. And robots.

A man and a woman with shocked and worried facial expressions, looking directly at the camera, within a circle of degrees.

Londonist

5 stars

"Adventure, laughter, clowning, maths, didacticism… a triumphant combination"

Exeunt

A man performing behind a perspex glass, with overlapping lines.

We’re Stuck!

Created by Sarah Punshon

Commissioned by Shoreditch Town Hall and Z-arts
Originally developed in collaboration with Maths on Toast

Ever got terribly stuck on a problem? Ever made a stupid mistake and felt like a fool? Brilliant! Then this show is for you.

Join us on a special tour deep into the heart of Volcano Industries where you can explore top-secret research laboratories and meet cutting edge scientists struggling with some unusual and extremely tricky problems. They need your help. But beware – there may be unexpected dangers…

This brand new interactive show, created by award-winning theatre-maker Sarah Punshon, is inspired by the latest educational neuroscience into how amazing and utterly rubbish our brains can be at maths – and how we can best grow our grey matter. Join our brave and ridiculous heroes on their voyage of discovery, and together we’ll struggle with ludicrously difficult tasks, get horribly stuck, and risk total failure. It’ll be fun.

Supported by a Wellcome Trust Arts Award, the Mercers’ Company, Manchester Science Festival and using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England

The production was developed in collaboration with five senior neuroscientists and psychologists from the Centre for Educational Neuroscience, University of London, the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, and the School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Edinburgh.

Photo © Arnim Friess

Booking Information

We worked with director Sarah Punshon, Maths On Toast and games designer Sophie Sampson to create a high quality activity pack based on the maths and learning principles included in We’re Stuck!

Together with Jubilee Primary School and William Pattern Primary school we’ve tested lots of different games and challenges to include.

Supported by The Mercers’ Company the pack is given free to every child who comes to see the show. It is designed to be taken home rather than used in the classroom. It features games and activities including a build your own robot net and a freepost postcard for them to return to Dr Volcano with details of the activities they’ve been stuck on.

The funding from the Mercers’ Company also gave Maths On Toast a chance to develop extensive teachers resources based on the show that extend the ideas and aims of the show into a variety of subjects including PSHE, PE and English.

The Volcano Industries Handbook was designed by Velcrobelly.

We’re Stuck! is a promenade production performed for a small audience.

The show involves the whole audience moving between several different spaces. Audiences will not be left standing for the whole show, but we definitely recommend wearing comfortable shoes and leaving bags and coats in the cloakroom. The performance areas are all wheelchair accessible, but the company needs to be warned before each performance of any audience members with mobility issues, so they can adapt their route and pacing.

A school group raising their hands and interacting with an actor.

One Tenth Human

One Tenth Human create innovative science-inspired arts events.

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  • Writer & Director | Sarah Punshon
  • Sound Designer | Elena Peña
  • Lighting Designer | Joshua Pharo
  • Production Manager | Chris Whitwood
  • Stage Manager | Jennifer Hunting
  • Filmmaker | Rachel Bunce
  • Producer | China Plate

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