‘They have given us all a little more hope….thank you audiences.’

By Emily Eversden

 

As you climb up the scaffold ladder and haul yourself and your luggage to the top of our structure for the third time in a six hour show, you don't know what response you'll get from this set of onlookers.  They look up at you, another new arrival, and watch you for your next move. 

Spat out of the multicoloured, beautiful design by Alex Rinsler and Mike De Buts, sometimes we don't know what our next move is. I look around trying to make eye contact with someone, many avoid this but one lady holds my gaze and gives me a little half wave. "That's nice" I think. 


Once I’ve made the descent down the knotted rope (doesn’t get any less scarier even after 50+ descents by the way) and had a little explore, I find that lady again and set up camp in front of her. Whatever I do in those next 5 minutes has an effect on her because she’s started to cry. This happened to me on the second day of our Brighton shows with a man, a Dad watching the show with his daughters. I knew from a little, sad shake of his head that he had created a story for my character and he understood some of what we were trying to show and suggest. 

Our audiences have given us all such a wealth of different responses; offering water, pointing us in the right direction, giving advice and bananas, taking our snacks, asking if they can climb the rope, big waving, secret waving, dancing with us, holding to their chest a tiny pair of shoes, pulling a wheelie across the performance space, blowing kisses, asking what planet we come from, holding our luggage. It’s been an adventure, an experiment, but we’ve found that the majority of their responses have been full of care, understanding and help and they have given us all a little more hope….thank you audiences xxx