If Descartes had been a Hongkonger, his timeless philosophy may well have been: “I shop therefore I am.” Consumerism is the air this city breathes – and with their new puppet-play Check Out!, Australian-based Polyglot Theatre are keen to let you know that your kids are breathing it too. Their message on the perils of overconsumption couldn’t be more relevant than in present-day Hong Kong.

Check Out! sprung from “an awful fascination with the way that children are used in marketing and the power that the child has in the family to drive the buying of whatever gets bought,” explains Sue Giles, Artistic Director of Polyglot Theatre and director and co-writer of the play. “The idea of childhood is a very different one than it used to be when I grew up – childhood now tends to be seen as a commodity.”

The show begins with an all-too-common scene: a child wants something unreasonable, the parents refuse, the child goes ape shit. Baby Mindy, the puppet-protagonist of the show, wants a chocolate bunny from the supermarket and when her parents don’t buy it for her, she throws a tantrum and refuses to leave. She then gets sucked into the hypnotic world that is the candy aisle, and is found by supermarket rogue-child Speedy. The mischievous child thinks himself “king” of the shelves and offers to make her queen in exchange for the stuffed giraffe her dad made for her. It’s her dearest possession but she gives it to him – as in return, anything she wants from the supermarket is hers. However, she gets more than she bargained for when she becomes a product on a shelf herself. “It’s a high stakes journey – the baby has to face big dangers and alarming situations that are at the same time quite funny,” says Giles. “The play asks children to question what they need rather than what they want.”

Having shown at locations as diverse as Melbourne and Shanghai, Giles finds that both children and parents across the globe are able to relate to the story. “The play is couched in very humorous terms – it’s full of hilarious slapstick, as well as these two adorable puppets – so it has great appeal from a visual point of view for our audiences both east and west.”

Part of Polyglot Theatre’s vision is to create an environment where children are inspired and challenged to imagine, to create, to transform. As Giles eloquently says, “The power and the drama of a child’s life and perspective are absolutely incredible across the whole world.” Thus, particularly for children who live in urban centers like Hong Kong where space is itself at such a premium, their mission to make children consider “extraordinary possibilities in ordinary spaces” could not be more welcome.

Leeza Mangaldas

Tickets: www.urbtix.hk; 2734 9009