Pim and Theo

Theses are some pictures from the ongoing rehearsals for Pim and Theo our EU funded installation / promenade project. Right now we are in the middle of rehearsals here in Denmark.
















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Location:Denmark

North North North - opening

After rehearsals and development in Svalbard, Oslo, Oxford and Peterborough - our latest touring show  North North North opened at The Key Theatre on the 9 May!

“A witty and darkly poignant show”

@Jumped Up Theatre

“Wonderful, inventive storytelling - humorous, engaging and moving”

@Harry_Waller_

“Another excellent show. Funny and poignant in equal measure. A ‘must see’”.

@Paul_E_Barnes

“Absolutely terrific!”

@BecksStrawberry

“Director Alex Byrne has a sure hand with his material...we know that the end will not be a happy one but somehow we want history to rewrite itself…****” WhatsOnstage.com

The show will tour in the UK in October 2013 and then go onto touring in Norway and festivals in 2014 onwards. Check out the website for more touring details!

Written by Cat Moore (UK Producer)

Last week of North North North rehearsals

It’s a great time for NIE, our rehearsal residency in Peterborough at the Key Theatre has neatly coincided with the warmest weather anyone’s seen in months. So in between conjuring sub-zero temperatures, shivering, donning multiple layers and yelling over the sound of the icy wind, we’ve been having picnic lunches in the sunshine on Peterborough embankment.

One half of set design team Bicat&Rigby- Kate has had a colourful few weeks, browsing local shops for taxidermy pigeons, suspending maps from the ceiling of the Key Theatre studio and not infrequently finding herself covered in PVA glue.

We received some great feedback from our open rehearsal last week and are now in the final countdown with one day until the premiere. Though the time’s gone by unnervingly fast, we’re looking forward to it. Jump into your preferred mode of transport, be it car, train or sled - don a moustache, and get yourself to Peterborough to see North North North this week!

Written by Holly Sharp, NIE Intern

Adventures in Peterborough

After development time at The North Wall, Oxford we are now in residence at The Key Theatre studio Peterborough for the final rehearsals for North North North.

We have been working on how to use the photographs from the expedition and our set designers Bicat&Rigby have been busy finishing off the set design and finding the right costumes.

We have an open rehearsal tomorrow night so it will be really useful to hear some feedback on how we present the story and responses to it so far...

 Margit trying on her moustache and thermal clothing!

Martin working with the crashed air balloon and original photograph

Using ladders to represent the height of the balloon

Written by Cat Moore, Producer

Balloons and blowers

We had a great week in residency at The North Wall in Oxford working on North North North. Through the week we looked at how to tell the story, and to find both the comic and poignant moments within it. We played with the use of projection and object puppetry as ways to illustrate the story.

On Friday we had an informal sharing and found the feedback really useful to inform the process.

"Well, @NIEtheatre have a treat in the making with NorthNorthNorth. Great real adventure story, invention & a big balloon. Hope they keep...the leaf blower"
‏@‏JoannaRidout

We are back to work on the show for final rehearsals at The Key Theatre, Peterborough from the 22 April, with the opening on the 9 May!

 Picture of the crashed balloon

 Showing how windy it was at the North Pole with the aid of a leaf blower and a cup of coffee!

 Feedback after the sharing

Hunting a polar bear

written by Cat Moore, UK Producer

North North North to North Wall!

This week we have been developing the show further at North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford - looking at the story and how the projection will work in the show.

More from the cold cold north

We have working more on North North North, in particular the part of the story where the three explorers are stuck on the ice... And try to pull their sledge 350 km before the winter closes in around them.








We also went out on the frozen lake again today and tied to pull Margit over the frozen bank of snow. More on this to follow.

Alex Byrne. Artistic Director.

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Location:Torstadskogen,Asker,Norway

A few pictures from the North North North rehearsal room

We have been working in our residential space at Dikemark. Here are a few picks of what we have been up to.




Martin explains the balloon crash




Lift off




Liz as Knut Frankl




And Margit as Nils Strindberg.

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North North North

We have been doing more work on North North North at our residential space in Dikemark just outside Asker in Norway. These are some pictures of our rehearsal room.






The weather has also been amazing with lots of sunshine, some snow, and some very cold nights (-12). We went out for a walk on the frozen fjord and tried to reproduce Andree's march over the ice flows....





Alex Byrne. Co-Artistic Director

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Heading North to Norway

On Sunday we start rehearsals for North North North - a new touring show about the true story of an ill-fated polar balloon expedition to the North Pole.

Our set designers Bicat&Rigby have been preparing some props and materials for us to work with in the devising process and they have now been packed up and ready to be sent from the UK to Norway.

Alex and Martin are flying out from the UK, Margit from Denmark and Elke from Belgium and will all arrive before the packages do travelling by road.

We have three weeks in Oslo before coming back to the UK to work at the North Wall Arts Centre and Key Theatre in April for the final development.

Cat Moore - Producer

'I will be EVERYTHING', Peterborough Pilot Workshops

Hi, I'm Holly and I’m excited to say that I’m the new intern for NIE. As part of my placement I’ll be mainly focusing on the Peterborough-based projects that NIE have planned for this year.

Last week we were working in primary schools round Peterborough picking on some exciting young minds for ideas to turn into a new show, ‘I will be EVERYTHING’. The workshops focused on the world of the future, fast-forwarding students to  2063 and the terrifyingly old age of 58 and asking them to explain a little more about their new world! Discussion included the new and exciting and also the scary and worrying things that the 2060s have in store, with students presenting their thoughts to their classmates.

Amongst our 58 year old participants we had a monkey, a ninja, a few dentists, quite a few footballers and one ghostbuster. We were told of several new inventions, including flying cars, houses that can get bigger and smaller and a newspaper that has tomorrow's news.

Even new words, ‘Catadogo’ anyone? Someone from 2063 could tell you that it means, ‘I like your pet’!

It wasn’t all happy news though, in 2063 everyone has red eyes and there is a worryingly growing population of giant ants...

Thank you to all the kids and teachers and West Town, Middleton and The Beeches primary schools for all your help and enthusiasm, we can’t wait to starting using your ideas in ‘I will be EVERYTHING’!

Holly Sharp - NIE Intern

Hansel and Gretel and Past Half Remembered

After wrestling with fake snow, tree trunks and blowing up hundreds of balloons, sadly, the first show I worked on during my work placement with NIE has come to an end at the Key Theatre in Peterborough. However, we will be back at the Key in May with North North North so we look forward to working with them again. Hansel and Gretel has been great and I have been able to work closely with Cat and Sarah, the Producer and Assistant Producer, which has given me a real insight into what it takes to make a show happen. Hopefully the show will be back at the end of the year, so watch this space!

So onto the next show! We are very excited about our first ever appearance in Wales and one night in Reading with award winning Past Half Remembered. The show will start in Reading on the 26th March at the South Street Arts Centre and then travel over to Cardiff to the Sherman Cymru Theatre for the 27th- 28th March. Ticket are available and it looks to be a brilliant show.

Katie White

Hansel and Gretel shows and art installation

We've had a brilliant time in Peterborough with Hansel and Gretel playing at the Key Theatre this February half term. Here are some of the audience responses to the show: Alongside the production, we have been working in collaboration with Metal, Vivacity and artist Robyn Woolston to create an artwork in response to the show. Robyn has worked in 3 local Primary schools (The Beeches, Hampton Vale and St Thomas More) to help generate the material, and ran craft workshops over each performance day at the Key Theatre. The result was a beautiful installation picking up key words and phrases from the show, and bringing the forest into the Key Theatre foyer:


 


Thanks so much to the Key Theatre, Vivacity and Metal and the audiences in Peterborough for making this a really special week!

Cat Moore - UK Producer