כמו גלידת תות עם סוכריות בקיץ: מחשבות של עדן קרמר על ׳הארמון של איתי׳ מאת רייצ׳ל ארדוס

Ugh.
This sucks.
It’s not fair.
So annoying.
I’m bored.

This is how Etai’s Castle, a dance performance for children by Rachel Erdos, created in collaboration with dancer-creators Tomer Giat and Ori Lenkinski (full disclosure: the founder and editor of this very magazine), begins. Giat, playing Etai, has been sent to his room for misbehaving. There, he launches into a sweet movement sequence accompanied by the familiar complaints every parent, and certainly every child, knows by heart. From the very first moments, the performance establishes an unspoken contract with its young audience: in this show, your perspective genuinely matters. No exaggerated adventures, no knights, dragons or princesses. Instead, this performance gives shape and substance to your world, to your fears, your desires, your games and your endless curiosity.

It’s not uncommon for children’s performances to imitate the perspective of a child protagonist, but it’s rare to see one do so with such authenticity. Etai’s room is simply a modest square outlined on the floor with LED lights, surrounded on all sides by parents and children seated in the round. Into Etai’s room comes Amit (Ori Lenkinski), a new girl in the neighborhood, and together they get to know one another and gradually become friends.

I’m about to use a word that parenting experts tend to hate: Etai’s Castle is simply… fun. Fun in the very best, most classic sense of the word. Like strawberry ice cream with sprinkles on a summer day. The dancers move effortlessly between movement and conversation, shifting from playful duets to beautifully synchronized unison phrases. They jump, lift one another, tumble, compete, bounce and spin, all while maintaining eye contact with the children in the audience. How do they manage all of this inside such a tiny square? Well, it’s often said that limitation is art’s greatest ally. The confined space opens up an entire world of physical possibilities, and the performers make the most of it.

Woven almost associatively into the rapidly changing scenes are references to children’s culture in all its variety: the children’s songs of Arik Einstein, Anna and Elsa, Where the Wild Things Are, The Jungle Book, and The Little Mermaid. The dancers aren’t afraid to speak directly to the children, asking questions like: Who has a little brother? Pancakes or waffles? Rice or couscous? Laughter from both children and parents fills the space throughout. Etai’s Castle is simple without being simplistic, childlike without being childish, and full of genuine joy rather than the manufactured cheerfulness that children’s entertainment can sometimes rely on.

Within all this fun, the performance quietly touches on issues that genuinely occupy children’s everyday lives: an annoying little sister, the wish to adopt a pet, different kinds of families, fear of the dark, and above all, the feeling that many children know so well, that somehow I’m too much (too loud, too messy, too demanding). The performers bring Amit and Etai to life in a way that resonates not only because of their physical skill, but because the characters are constructed exactly like children themselves: without judgment and fully present in every emotion and every action. When they’re angry, they’re completely angry. When they’re excited, they’re completely excited. It’s contagious.

My three-and-a-half-year-old son wanted to know, at the end of the performance, whether we could come back and see Etai and Amit again. When we got home, he asked me to quiz him the way they do in the show: Would you rather have an omelet or scrambled eggs? Ice cream or a popsicle?