Creative Incubator Fund
Launched in October 2025 to spark new artistic work and support collaboration between local and visiting creatives.
Delivered by the Basingstoke and Deane Cultural Compact, the fund has supported artists to grow new ideas and strengthen the borough’s creative scene – with all four projects premiering at Basingstoke Festival this summer.
Scratch Built Productions’ in collaboration with Forest Forge Theatre company created
The Magical Toy Hospital
What is The Magical Toy Hospital? Not only is it a 25min theatre show, it also takes an empty shop unit or village hall and turns it, completely into a functioning toy hospital. Blue hospital screens carve up the room into wards and waiting bays. Clipboards, X-rays, and pharmacy shelves line the walls. A cast of four dedicated “doctors” and “nurses” move through the space in full character, handling crises with theatrical flair and warm humour.
The show is inspired by the nostalgic Saturday-night television of Casualty and 24 Hours in A&E, with physical theatre and puppetry the event blends the familiar comfort of those formats with the wonder of immersive children’s theatre. There are talking heads, choreographed ballet check-ups, physical comedy, and genuine emotional stakes — including the story of a 92-year-old vintage clock who gets sent to the ”reset room”. Age-appropriately and with great care, the show touches on empathy, loss, and what it means to get back something you love.
The result is an experience unlike anything else on the touring circuit: immediately understandable to every age group, genuinely funny for adults, irresistibly absorbing for children, and emotionally resonant for everyone.
It is also, quite simply, one of the most practical footfall tools available to venue hirers and event planners. More on that below.
The Drop-in Clinic Experience — The Patient Journey
At the heart of the Magical Toy Hospital is the drop-in, a patient journey that runs continuously for an hour and a half 30 minutes after the show. Children bring a toy from home — or choose one from the adoption shelf on arrival — and from the moment they enter, the immersive experience begins.
Step 1 — Admission Every patient is checked in properly by the receptionist. Medical records are filled out: name, age, symptoms, height and weight are checked. The toy is the patient the child is their concerned care giver.
Step 2 — Triage and Check-up Each child is escorted to a cubicle where one of the cast conducts a thorough examination with stethoscopes, temperature gauges, reflex hammers and medicine syringes. Notes are taken. Diagnoses are delivered with total medical gravitas.
Step 3 — X-Ray/ CT Scan The “Cute Toy Scanner” Is an AI-generated image that reveals a “blockage” that needs attention. Children peer at the scan of their actual toy on the screen with wide eyes and enormous seriousness. On the other end of the spectrum we have the X-ray where each scan is hand-drawn by one of the doctors — a beautifully lo-fi detail that children are able to take home with them.
Step 4 — The Pharmacy Once the diagnosis has been revealed then they head to the pharmacy where the prescriptions are written and filled. The medicine might be love, hugs, extra cuddles, or “a bit of stuffing for when you’re feeling low.” These are sent home with the child. Children choose their own flavour from a selection of essential oil sprays: peppermint, tea tree, lavender, lemon, or classic antiseptic. A small, meaningful moment of agency that they remember.Step 5 — Discharge Every child leaves with their medical records, their prescription, and their toy fitted with a wristband bearing its details. If the diagnosis reveals a serious issue like ripped fur or scratched off nose then then the Real toy repairs are available on site via either a local sewing group or one of our repair specialists —
Toys are available for adoption to ensure no child without a toy is left out.
The Show
The hospital opens with a 25-minute theatrical performance staged within the space. The audiences witness a day in the life of a toy hospital.
There is a lost dolly, a teddy with a detached limb and a vintage clock who might have to “move onto another place”.
What unfolds is a piece of physical theatre that balances both comedy and tenderness:
The show is pitched perfectly for mixed ages. It is funny in ways that work for a four-year-old and funny in entirely different ways for the accompanying adult. It does not talk down to children, and it does not exclude them from anything important.
At the end of each performance, the cast makes an announcement: “The hospital will be open for patient admissions in approximately thirty minutes and will be open until….” This single detail is a smart piece of event design. It keeps audiences in the area. It creates anticipation. It sends families directly towards the drop-in with purpose and excitement but without the rush.
Why It Works for Your Venue
The Magical Toy Hospital solves problems that event planners, venue hirers, and councils deal with every day.
Footfall and dwell time The drop-in runs for an hour and a half continuously. The patient journey takes five to ten minutes. The shows happen twice a day. The cycle of performance-then-drop-in creates a genuine traffic loop: families who arrive for the show stay for the hospital; families who pass through the hospital often circle back for a show. In a shopping centre or market setting, this translates directly to extended visit time and increased spend in surrounding units.
All ages The Magical Toy Hospital works for a toddler experiencing their first piece of theatre. It works for a primary school child who fully inhabits the fiction and brings their most treasured toy. It works for a teenager who arrives sceptical and ends up in fits of laughter or even better they become a receptionist or a pharmacist and get first hand experience of what it’s like to be an interactive theatre performer. And it works for the adult who grew up watching Casualty and finds themselves unexpectedly moved.
Community benefit and CIC credentials Scratch Built Productions is a Community Interest Company — one constitutionally committed to community benefit rather than profit.
We have a track record of genuine community impact: we work with families from low-income backgrounds, children with additional needs, neurodiverse young people, and communities where access to high-quality arts is limited. Hiring us is not just good programming. It is demonstrably good for the community you serve.
Collaboration potential The event was designed to involve local partners. Sewing groups and repair specialists can join as on-site toy surgeons. Young people from local colleges, schools, or youth groups can train as community volunteers and participate directly in the drop-in. This is not a passive add-on — it creates genuine work experience in immersive theatre and strengthens the connection between the event and its community. If you are interested in this element it would need to be discussed at least 6 weeks before the event.
Flexibility and ease of operation Setup and breakdown is quite quick. Space requirements are modest. We come to you — a blank canvas becomes a fully operational hospital.
Who Comes
Families with children aged 3–10 are the core audience, and they come in numbers. The drop-in is immediately legible to young children, and the combination of medical role-play, sensory elements, and personalised take-home items creates the kind of experience that gets talked about for weeks after.
Parents come because children drag them in, and stay because the show is genuinely funny for them. Audience feedback consistently highlights the Casualty references and the pitch-perfect adult humour running underneath the child-friendly surface.
People with additional needs are welcomed. Scratch Built Productions specialises in inclusive, sensory-aware theatre. The drop-in’s flexible pace and individual attention make it genuinely accessible for neurodiverse children and adults with complex needs. This is not adaptation after the fact — it is how the show is designed.
Adults with vintage toys turn up, and are treated with complete seriousness. There is something quietly wonderful about a grown adult presenting a childhood toy to a doctor who examines it and the take time to repair it.
The result is an event that generates its own audience. It does not require a specialist demographic. It requires people — and it gives them something to talk about.
[INSERT IMAGE: A collage of smiling faces: a toddler, a teenager laughing, and an adult with a vintage toy]
What’s Included
Space and Setup
Minimum floor area: 8m × 8m flat surface
Indoor preferred: shopping centres, empty retail units, village halls, festival marquees, leisure centres if it is on an uneven surface then we would not be able to perform the show element but we can do the hospital drop in.
The majority of the set is on wheels
Blue hospital screens are supplied and define the space
Power
Standard power sockets would be useful for charging but not essential to the actual performance
StaffingCast of 4 professional performers — fully trained and experienced in immersive, interactive children’s theatre
Community volunteers can be integrated and trained for the drop-in — ideal for local college or youth group partnerships
We handle all performer management, stage management, and on-the-day logistics
Schedule (Full Day)
Two 25-minute performances
2x Drop-in running for approximately 1 hour and a half
The show-to-drop-in cycle managed throughout the day by performers.
Materials Supplied
Medical records forms
Hand-drawn X-rays
Prescriptions
Toy wristbands
Essential oil sprays
Adoption toys
Not Included (Unless Arranged)
On-site toy repair (we coordinate with a local sewing group or repair specialist — we can help identify appropriate partners if needed)
Catering, flooring, additional furniture
What People Say
The Magical Toy Hospital has been performed at Basingstoke Festival and developed in collaboration with Forest Forge Theatre Company. What follows is what audiences said.
“It was amazing to be in a fully-fledged toy hospital! The attention to detail that mimicked a real hospital was brilliant! My kids were immersed in the experience and they still have the prescriptions where the kisses and hugs escape and land on my kids when they open the bottles!”
“My child loved every minute of the experience. He actually believed it was a real hospital for toys! At the end of the session, he said to me that he feels confident and comfortable to speak to a Dr/Nurse by himself if he’s unwell. He wanted to come back to do it again the next day!!”
“Amazing, the kids loved it so much we came 2 weekends in a row and even now they talk about going back to the toy hospital.”
“Excellent — a really memorable interactive experience. The attention to detail was superb and made it very special. All the actors were brilliant with the children and it was again pitched perfectly for children.”
“Funny, engaging and thought provoking!! Empathy evoking and problem solving knowledge imparted to the little (and big) people watching!!”
“Funny and entertaining for kids and nostalgic for adults who grew up with Saturday night Casualty on TV.”
“Brilliant — lots of fun for grown ups and children alike, pitched really well and a good length. Made me laugh as well as the children.”
“It was such a lovely experience, so nice to see the actors interacting with the children and the set up was great.”
“So funny, loved the expressions of all of the actors.”
“It was also inspiring to my kids as they could see themselves as doctors and nurses too!”
“All the staff were amazing, even when one of my children was reluctant they followed their lead and stayed in character the whole time.”
“My favourite part was the x-ray which my little boy now has put up on his wall.”
“Loved it! Simple and effective and with a few adult jokes.”
“Our kids loved the show, very funny and imaginative.”
“Loved that the kids saw the workings of a hospital. They really bought into it. It was so funny and entertaining!”
What People Say
The Magical Toy Hospital has been performed at Basingstoke Festival and developed in collaboration with Forest Forge Theatre Company. What follows is what audiences said.
“It was amazing to be in a fully-fledged toy hospital! The attention to detail that mimicked a real hospital was brilliant! My kids were immersed in the experience and they still have the prescriptions where the kisses and hugs escape and land on my kids when they open the bottles!”
“My child loved every minute of the experience. He actually believed it was a real hospital for toys! At the end of the session, he said to me that he feels confident and comfortable to speak to a Dr/Nurse by himself if he’s unwell. He wanted to come back to do it again the next day!!”
“Amazing, the kids loved it so much we came 2 weekends in a row and even now they talk about going back to the toy hospital.”
“Excellent — a really memorable interactive experience. The attention to detail was superb and made it very special. All the actors were brilliant with the children and it was again pitched perfectly for children.”
“Funny, engaging and thought provoking!! Empathy evoking and problem solving knowledge imparted to the little (and big) people watching!!”
“Funny and entertaining for kids and nostalgic for adults who grew up with Saturday night Casualty on TV.”
“Brilliant — lots of fun for grown ups and children alike, pitched really well and a good length. Made me laugh as well as the children.”
“It was such a lovely experience, so nice to see the actors interacting with the children and the set up was great.”
“So funny, loved the expressions of all of the actors.”
“It was also inspiring to my kids as they could see themselves as doctors and nurses too!”
“All the staff were amazing, even when one of my children was reluctant they followed their lead and stayed in character the whole time.”
“My favourite part was the x-ray which my little boy now has put up on his wall.”
“Loved it! Simple and effective and with a few adult jokes.”
“Our kids loved the show, very funny and imaginative.”
“Loved that the kids saw the workings of a hospital. They really bought into it. It was so funny and entertaining!”
