When was the last time you played? Not sports or an organized team thing, really played: let your imagination guide you to some joy? Most adults don’t play any more, even if there are little ones around we tend to resist fully letting ourselves go in service of the play. What if that joy and curiosity could come from the mouth of an adult? Sunny Drake’s CHILD-ish, beautifully directed by Andrea Donaldson, does just that. After years of interviews with children about love, death, friends, school, and everything in between Drake has distilled the words of these younglings into a moving and thought-provoking piece of verbatim theatre.

If you’ve been with a child who is able to speak, you know that within minutes, the questions begin. But what happens when you start asking them the questions?What tidbits of wisdom might emerge from the young person you’re speaking to? Sunny Drake is doing just that; asking a wide range of young people what they think about the world. While at first the topics are lighthearted: school, friendship, and love, it becomes clear to Drake that there’s much more going on beneath the surface for these kids. With permission from both child and caregivers, Drake allows the subjects to turn to more heavy topics, and yet the clarity with which these youngsters experience the world remains intact, and is frankly dazzling. When it’s finally time for the children to be asking the questions again, they range from the silly to the sincere, and yet the kernels of truth they’re digging for are certainly more difficult to access when an adult is responding.

However, what makes CHILD-ish unique is that there are four adult performers saying the words of the young people Drake actually interviewed. Amanda Wong’s set design put us in what looks like a hotel conference room, except that the couch which sits centre stage is clearly modular, like one of those foam play sets which are popular with young kids. Five adults enter the stage: Asher Rose playing Drake, and the other four who then embody the essence of the children. Karl Ang, Janelle Cooper, Monique Mojica, and Jordan Pettle somehow manage to both look and act like adults (for the most part, anyways) while fully embracing the spirit of the kids they’re playing. They’re brilliant performers, and take on this incredible challenge head on with such verve that you can’t help but laugh along with their antics.

What took my breath away was the sudden appearance of a group of actual young people at the end of the show. They emerge from the wings at an emotional high point and you could have heard a pin drop we were all so stunned. A quick shout of “Disney Castle!” from one of the older kids let us know that play time had commenced, and both adult and child alike began rearranging the furniture to create their Disney fantasy land. To have actual kids on stage for the final moments of the play brings the whole thing into focus; if we can believe and understand their words when they’re coming from the mouths of an adult, why can’t we just listen to the kids themselves?

CHILD-ish is not just about taking the time to talk to the real kids in your life, but also nurturing the little kid in all of us. Go play on that swing, make something just because, hang out with your friends with no set agenda, squawk like a chicken, believe in unicorns who can tell the future. That joy, and that kid who delighted in the joy of the world around them, exists within us all. Let that kid out sometimes, you never know what you might find out.

CHILD-ish runs in the Tarragon Theatre Extraspace until November 16. For more information and tickets, visit: https://tarragontheatre.com/plays/2025-2026/child-ish/

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Cover Photo: Jordan Pettle, Janelle Cooper, Karl Ang, Asher Rose, and Monique Mojica. Photo by Jae Yang.

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