In
Cornwall, 1980, a village school teacher began to run theatre workshops in his
spare time.
In due course a mixture of people became involved; a farmer,
the sign writer from Tesco, several students, a thrash guitarist from a local
band, an electrician.
No actors…nobody who had been trained. The workshops
took place in the spirit of cheerful anarchy and casually slipped into performance,
and finally the production of shows.
There were no theatres or arts centres
in Cornwall; Kneehigh created theatre for families in locations within their communities,
village halls, marquees, harboursides…and less conventional places.
They
created theatre on cliff-tops, in preaching pits and quarries, amongst gunpowder
works and arsenic wastes, up trees, down holes, where the river meets the sea
and where woodland footpaths end.
Kneehigh remain a multi-talented group
of performers, directors, designers, sculptors, engineers, musicians, administrators
and writers, who use a wide range of art forms and media as a "tool kit"
for making theatre.
A spontaneous sense of risk and adventure produces
extraordinary dramatic results. Themes are universal and local, epic and domestic.
"Cornwall is our physical and spiritual home; we draw inspiration
from its landscapes, history, people and culture.
Each year we commission
new writing and devise and produce large scale outdoor and indoor international
tours, small scale village tours, land and sea site specific theatre, installations
and events. The company is now acknowledged as a defining theatrical force in
the UK. "
"To be truly universal, you must be truly local."
J. Miro
To visit Kneehigh theatre website click
here
