Jolyon James’ stage show Robot Song centres on the story of a young autistic child, Juniper, struggling to find her place in the world.
A child in crisis mode, Juniper discovers herself through the power of creativity, with some help from a giant, singing robot.
But while ostensibly a children’s show, since premiering in 2018 Robot Song has struck a chord with audiences of all ages.
“What I didn’t understand when I was writing it is that we’ve all felt that feeling of being on the outer, feeling different, not understanding our position in the world,” he said.
“It’s a really universal feeling; I think people from the autism community will recognise traits within the character, but even if you’re not, those universal feelings of being out, being bullied, resonate well beyond that.”
The story is based on James’ experiences when his son, diagnosed in grade prep with autism, received a letter from his classmates telling him he was ‘the most hated person in the school’.
While James and his partner initially struggled to help their son deal with the crisis – “we were just going, I don’t know what to do here,” – they found a way to help him break through.
“There’s a misunderstanding about people with autism, that they lack empathy or emotion, but actually, the opposite is true,” James said.
“For my son, he’s so sensitive that sometimes he just has to shut down…to retreat at times. Because I’m an artist, I used the tools I had to try to connect with him and understand what he needed.
“Whenever we did ridiculous art projects together, we suddenly shared a really clear language; I could see creativity enabled him to go places he wasn’t necessarily able to, or had the tools for, at the time.”
“There’s a giant robot, it’s the culmination of the show, and I literally built that robot with my two boys in our backyard. And that process of creativity changed us.
“My son has now just turned 15, and applying creativity to his life has utterly transformed him, he’s thriving. He’s unrecognisable as this really fraught little person…now he is proudly taking his place in the world.”
Robot Song is at Geelong Arts Centre on Monday 23 February. Visit geelongartscentre.org.au for tickets.
