Are we alone in the universe? It's a question big enough to occupy a lifetime of scientific research, and direct enough to belong quite comfortably in a primary school classroom.
For Newcastle-based theatre charity Cap-a-Pie, that combination is the starting point for Mission Outer Space: an interactive performance and workshop inviting children aged four to seven to explore the search for life beyond Earth.
Following a sold-out premiere at Northern Stage on 26 September, the production is travelling into North East schools this autumn. Its programme of ten school performances is expected to reach approximately 270 children, with pupils at Newcastle’s Hotspur Primary School among those already taking part.
The launch coincided with World Space Week, which ran from 4 to 10 October. But the questions it raises have a considerably longer shelf life than a date in the calendar.
How would we recognise life somewhere else? What would count as evidence? And how do we begin looking for something when we don't know quite what we might find?
Developed with Professor Robert Pal of Durham University and Dr Lewis MacKenzie of the University of Strathclyde, the project introduces children to the work of researchers investigating those questions. Its focus includes molecules and the chemistry that could offer clues to the existence of living things beyond our planet.
That's an ambitious subject for an audience still near the beginning of its school life. It's also a reminder that young children’s capacity for curiosity needn't be limited by the complexity of a subject. The task is finding a way in.
Cap-a-Pie’s route uses storytelling, performance, music and audience interaction. Written by artistic director Brad McCormick and performed by McCormick and Jeannie May Adam, the show includes Makaton in each performance. Music is by Roma Yagnik, with a song by Katie Doherty; the project is supported by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
“I would love for children to come away being excited about science and how it’s looking for signs of life in space in these really amazing ways,” says McCormick. “And even to think about the big question of ‘Are we alone in the universe?’”
For MacKenzie, the collaboration opens up possibilities that scientific expertise alone can't provide.
“Working with Cap-a-Pie enables us to think about science communication in new and exciting ways that we, as scientists, are not generally equipped to do by ourselves.”
He hopes children will discover connections across subjects as well as distances across space: “I also hope they see that science isn’t always split neatly into biology, physics and chemistry, and that science is fun.”
There's a useful parallel here with the arts. A child participating in a theatre workshop can be listening, imagining, moving, reasoning and testing an idea within the same activity. The distinctions adults draw between disciplines can become less important than the question everyone's trying to answer.
And the exchange works in both directions. Pal describes sharing research with the public in a different form as rewarding, but also points to what researchers can learn from unfamiliar perspectives.
“It is always people who aren’t involved with the underlying science from the start who ask the best questions we never thought of.”
That observation gives the project a particular warmth. Children are being invited into a conversation in which their questions have value. There is room for uncertainty, and for the possibility that a fresh pair of eyes might notice something an expert has overlooked.
At Hotspur Primary School, teacher Beth Morley says the session gave pupils an accessible way to explore substantial scientific ideas while using their imaginations and sharing their thoughts.
“The children were still talking about whether there could be life on other planets afterwards,” she says.
One Year 1 pupil offered a quieter assessment: “I enjoyed learning about space, what is the same and what is different.”
It is a small sentence containing a considerable amount of thinking: noticing, comparing, wondering.
Cap-a-Pie is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2026, having spent three decades bringing people together through theatre and working with young people, educators and researchers. Mission Outer Space continues that work through the autumn term, carrying a question about the universe into rooms where children are beginning to discover what they think.
The journey might be imaginary. The invitation to take their ideas seriously is real.
Mission Outer Space is suitable for ages four to seven and Key Stage 1.
For information about school bookings, visit Cap-a-Pie’s production page or contact hello@cap-a-pie.co.uk.
