But the joy of seeing a five-year-old properly gripped, that’s so overwhelmingly satisfying.”įor her, it happened, aged five, mid-Cinderella in Leatherhead. She says: “It would be the most painful thing, presenting an early years’ show, to hear: ‘I’m bored. If a show goes slack for even a second, they switch off. That is rooted in Cookson’s work for children. Every action is articulated and the whole thing simply flows.Īnna Francolini, centre, as Hook in Cookson’s 2016 production of Peter Pan at the National. Cookson’s work has a rare musicality as a result. “The way she uses time on stage allows her to release meaning and emotion in a very profound, very theatrical way,” he says. It was Tom Morris, Bristol Old Vic’s artistic director, who encouraged her to venture on to the main stage after he saw Travelling Light’s show Boing!. “As I get older, I’m more and more interested in how we get people into the theatre.” I wish I knew why.” If Cookson had her way, the Unicorn – a theatre devoted to work for young people – would be attached to the National and every subsidised theatre would have kids’ shows running year-round. “Children’s literature has always been sidelined,” Cookson says over lunch.

Neither form tends to make the main stage. Long considered a leading light in children’s theatre, creating work with Bristol’s Travelling Light, she is also one of the UK’s best creators of devised theatre. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The GuardianĬookson’s late rise says much about British theatre. Heart of the story … Madeleine Worrall as Jane Eyre.

Cs lewis into the wardrobe