Category: Writing

Full Circle, Avanti Display

In 2016-17, I worked with Bill Palmer and Pete Finegan to create Full Circle – a show which has become a bit of a surprise hit on the outdoor arts circuit and by 2019 had toured across the UK and across the world via France, the Netherlands and Portugal all the way to South Korea.

The show is hard to describe – somewhere between a strange live art piece and a traditional street ‘circle’ show. The name comes from the idea that Bill, when considering his retirement, was taking his thoughts full circle, to take stock of the first time he performed on the street and the learning he’s gained in how to attend to an audience. He was reminded of a time when Mike Lister (former co-director of Avanti), thew a small stuffed toy over the top of a large crowd of people and waited… until an unseen person threw it back.

What ensued was lots of group thinking and practical exploring of ways in which we can encourage people to trust us and to become integral in making the show function. And ways in which we could turn the dominant style of the circle show performer on its head. Most acts that you find in places like Covent Garden and other popular busking spots work hard to be entertaining and likeable. We wondered if we could be grumpy and antagonistic and yet still attract and keep large crowds. All this, while being attentive to use the ingredients that Bill had challenged us to work with, including an ever growing pile of galvanised buckets.

A sunny day with a blue sky in a town centre. We see a line of shiny, steel buckets in the foreground with people walking past and a crowd in the background
We see a semicircular line of shiny, steel buckets with a crowd behind them.

A crucial factor in the creation of this successful show was in the fact that we made it very slowly. Short bursts of activity at 101 Outdoor Arts Creation Centre and at the New Vic, Stoke on Trent were full of experiments and hard thinking. In between, there was time for the ideas to land in our brains and to expand into a life of their own. As such, when we eventually came to nailing it down, we managed to whip it up pretty quick prior to our first performances at Bath’s Bedlam Fair.

This show has been a pleasure to create and perform in. It’s not to everyone’s taste. Some see it as cruel (it explicitly touches on obedience to people in authority) but fortunately most find it funny and also strangely compelling and watching a group of people stand and watch a tower of buckets being extremely slowly erected, doesn’t fail to delight me.

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Romantic Botanic – Miraculous Theatre

Romantic Botanic is a series of bespoke guided tours delving into the secret love life of plants. The show mixes poetry and science, factual and fictional folklore, to create an engaging, profound and hilarious look into the world of plant realm and their relationship with us. 

Creator and Writer: Barnaby Gibbons

Technical Direction: Roger Hartley

Devising Performers: Barnaby Gibbons, Roger Hartley, Paschale Straiton

“The Romantic Botanic experience was superb; an original, witty and very amusing show which engaged the audience and, importantly, got them thinking about the environment around them. As managers of a site with such ecological and archaeological importance, it really made us think and realise that we should be considering other alternative ways of promoting some of our key messages to a wider audience.” Stuart Clarke
Countryside & Conservation Manager Bournemouth Borough Council

Peter Marrowfat listens to lovesick eucalyptus
Barbara Simpson reads an ode to the fig
Edward Green leads the throng
Barbara Simpson heals a tree

The show was originally co-commissioned by Womadelaide Festival and Fremantle Festival, with site specific versions created for Hengistbury Headlines for Inside Out Festival and at Trentham Gardens for Appetite. 

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Street Arts – time for some critical feedback

I’ve been making street theatre for 14 years, as likely to pop up beside Poundstretcher in Stockton as a herbacious border in Bracknell. I’m not a busker but mainly perform as part of festivals and community events, where the public can come and watch a series of programmed performances in their town centres for free.

 

Things have changed a bit in this time. The Arts Council has recognised outdoor performance as a valuable social tool – opening the enjoyment of art out to people who might not be regular art mongers; encouraging people from different backgrounds to share fun and inspiring experiences together; inviting people to view their shared public space in new and exciting ways; and to encourage active participation through carnival events and the like. Increased funding, especially in the lead up to London 2012 focused heavily on street arts and many regional and national theatre companies have started to get in on the act. Even the RSC has made the odd appearance at Latitude Festival.

 

However, the street arts sector faces a number of problems. Arts budget cut backs, especially at the local level, has resulted in the demise of many arts festivals, which has in turn had a massive impact on artists who depended on these events for their bread and butter. However, outdoor performers are specialists at adapting to circumstances – whether it’s the weather or the economic climate. Some are side-stepping into the world of museums and galleries which are looking to develop ways in which they engage with the public.

 

However, what’s perhaps more of a problem is the fact that the level of critical evaluation of this type of work has remained negligible throughout my career. Total Theatre Magazine does take an interest in the sector and Lynne Gardiner from the Guardian makes the odd appearance. But as you look out of the swing doors of the street arts saloon, they are solitary figures amongst the dust and tumbleweed. Not only does this mean that we, as artists suffer from a lack of feedback which could help us to develop more sophisticated work, but the situation also questions weather we are in fact taken seriously enough by the larger theatre making community, to warrant such attention.

 

Not all of us want to be accepted by ‘the establishment’. The street arts sector is extremely democratic in nature and includes a significant outsider element, who wish to remain firmly outside. And this is partly what makes it exciting. But some of us do wish to have a discourse. I am amongst those who are not embarrassed to be the bastard child of the theatre world, but do wish that mother would throw us a few more scraps.

 

Perhaps we should prod her a bit more vigorously?

 

I am proposing to set up a peer led review group for outdoor performance. Would anyone care to join me?

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