Philip Holyman is one of the co-directors of Little Earthquake, a Birmingham-based theatre company which he’s been running since 2005 with his now-husband, Gareth Nicholls. The company’s latest show, The Dog With Two Dads, runs at the city’s Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) in October, as part of MAC’s 60th anniversary season.
We caught up with Philip to find out more about Little Earthquake and The Dog With Two Dads...

Tell us about Little Earthquake, Philip...
Little Earthquake exists to give people experiences that aren’t boring: Thou Shalt Not Bore is the motto we live by. Beyond that, there are no rules to what we make, how we make it or where we make it. Usually, what our work looks and feels like is shaped by the audiences we’re making it for, or the participants that we’re making it with. As long as we don’t bore them, anything and everything should be possible.
We’re an associate company at MAC, and we love working closely with Debbie Kermode [MAC’s artistic director & CEO] and her whole team to produce ambitious events which can surprise, inspire, challenge and, above all, entertain intergenerational audiences across Birmingham and beyond. 

Give us some examples of a ‘not boring’ Little Earthquake project...
In 2019, we worked with Kaye Winwood to create Rocket Fuel, an immersive, interactive, eight-course dining experience inspired by Neil Armstrong’s actual in-flight menu. That show was part of MoonFest, our festival celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, which featured nine days of newly commissioned projects across a range of artforms. 
We love making work about big themes and epic world events - but just as often, the work we make is more intimate in scale and has a very specific local focus. In 2021, we created The Stolen Year, an audio installation featuring the voices of 12 Birmingham residents, all aged 60 and over, exploring their experiences of life during the pandemic. We transformed MAC’s main theatre with a six-metre circle of real, living grass, decked out with 12 chairs matched to the tastes and personalities of each interviewee, all watched over by Flo, a foot-tall, hand-knitted lateral-flow test, who became the production’s mascot.

Tell us about The Dog With Two Dads...
The Dog With Two Dads is Little Earthquake’s brand-new theatre show for three- to seven-year-olds and their adults, which we’ve been commissioned to make by MAC. Selected shows will be BSL-interpreted, and there will be a ‘relaxed performance’ for people with additional needs or anyone who would benefit from a more adapted environment.
Through the story of a gay couple who want a dog, the show explores relationships, family structures and LGBTQ+ identities in a fun and accessible way, ultimately delivering messages of acceptance, validation and equality. 
It’s an original story told with live music, songs, and a cast who play a host of silly people and even sillier animals. It’s a heartwarming show about two papas and a pooch. It celebrates families of every shape and size, and being loved for exactly who you are. 
By the time we tour the show in 2023, an accompanying picture-book will also exist, enabling the audiences who experience the live show to further explore its ideas and messages after they’ve seen it. It will also enable children and families who can’t, don’t or won’t see the theatre show to engage with the themes and values of The Dog With Two Dads in a complementary way.

What motivated you to produce The Dog With Two Dads?
The Dog With Two Dads is inspired by a key phrase in the Department for Education’s Relationships Education Statutory Guidance (2020), which says that: “By the end of primary school, pupils should know that others’ families, either in school or the wider world, sometimes look different from their family, but that they should respect those differences and know that other children’s families are also characterised by love and care.”
The show is an opportunity for children  - and their adults - to celebrate everything that makes their own family unique and special, and perhaps more importantly, to recognise that other family structures are equally valid - even if they look very different from the one they might be familiar with. 
No two families are exactly the same - but every family unit is capable of being filled with love, care and kindness. And while our story focuses on LGBTQ+ people and families, the show makes it clear that the exact same principle applies to everybody, no matter who they are or how they live their lives.

What’s the background to the show?
We were motivated to develop the story and the show back in 2019, in response to a deeply troubling climate, not just in Birmingham but elsewhere in the UK and internationally, which has seen a resurgence of anti-LGBTQ+ social attitudes - including increases in bullying and hate crime, alongside an associated rise in mental ill health and both attempted and fatal suicide rates for LGBTQ+ people.
We feel very strongly that age-appropriate positive representation and visibility of LGBTQ+ people and LGBTQ+ families is important for all young audiences, so that they can see for themselves that it’s okay for people to be different, and that it’s okay for someone to have a family that might look different to their families. It’s just as important for adults to see this kind of representation and visibility, too.

Can people bring their dogs to see the show?
We really wish they could - but apart from assistance dogs, animals aren’t able to come inside the building at MAC, unfortunately! We’re very seriously exploring ways to make our performances pet-friendly in future, though!
Dogs - and all pets - are a really important part of millions of families in the UK - even more so since the pandemic - so it makes perfect sense that some people might want to bring their four-legged family members to share experiences like this with them. There’d be lots of practical challenges to solve first. How would you ask a canine audience member to stop barking? And what do you do if they leave a little puddle - or anything else - under their seat? But we’re definitely up for exploring solutions to all those things!

We will be hosting a very special event on MAC’s Terrace on Saturday 8 October for families and their dogs. Keep an eye out on social media and MAC’s website for more details soon!

Little Earthquake's The Dog with Two Dads shows at Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) from Fri 23 to Sun 23 October.