Archive

I just thought, I wonder what happens if the Chorus are like bird watchers but they’re looking at love? I remember suggesting everybody put on a funny balaclava and anoraks and start looking for …

Emma Rice

At the time of making the show in the early 2000s, Emma and I were really into Tarantino and films like Pulp Fiction: bloody good storytelling and great music. This Tristan & Yseult is a …

Mike Shepherd

The music of John Gay took opera music, the serious opera, and whilst not mocking it, used it as fuel to comment on the wealthy and to show another side of life. That's what Punch and Judy did: they …

Sarah Wright

One of the things I’m most pleased about with our show is that I think we’ve done the original play really well. Alfred Jarry was our spiritual guide. His ground-breaking and highly controversial …

Carl Grose

I always work around an idea. If you know you love it, that's in the bank. Think round it. What does it make you think of? What were the things that were swirling around in your mind? With Brief …

Emma Rice

Ideas are everywhere

Mike Shepherd

I'm a massive believer in dressing up. Always have been. I think everybody changes the minute they dress up, but you have to make sure that the clothes fit. Teachers need to find things that make …

Emma Rice

As soon as you start getting your group to have fun with what they're doing and play to their strengths, you’re on to a winner because they love what they're doing. What they're doing becomes really …

Giles King

Improvisation is really important for storytelling.

Mike Shepherd

Going to the Barns for the first time was mind-blowing. It changed everything for me as an artist and as a person, that there was this world of creativity, of storytelling right by the sea.

Ian Ross

There's any number of ways to describe what an ensemble is, but for me, it's a group of people who are on a journey with the work, who have some shared beliefs and, ideally, some shared language. …

Mike Shepherd

We always started with playfulness. There was always a sense of returning to your childhood sense of mischief.

Sue Hill

One of the ways to get people to care is if there’s a sense of shared ownership. That's why we always worked collectively while, at the same time, giving writers, designers, musicians the autonomy to …

Mike Shepherd

Theatre should be like stepping onto a tightrope every night not plodding down a well trodden path. Even when you’re on your 300th performance there should still be a sense of spontaneity, a fizz of …

Mike Shepherd