HORSE + BAMBOO has developed an unusual and influential approach to working with people who have learning differences. ‘Guided Imagery’ creates a world of powerful stimuli - sounds, images, colours, textures and smells - through which a ‘journey’ takes place.

This journey takes about two hours, and it takes place within a large, detailed, installed environment, specially created for the purpose. To create an element of surprise, it is not described as a visit to the ‘theatre’. Instead it's a visit to a laboratory, a coalmine, a chip-shop, a shoe-factory......whatever suits the particular theme.................

The visiting groups come for a whole day. The journey usually takes up the morning. It will involve the group confronting a wide range of situations and characters. Many of these situations will involve puzzles - problems to overcome that are devised so as to really 'stretch' the individuals. In addition the environment is full of powerful sensory sensations. The group is, literally, inside a story.

After lunch we recall these experiences and develop them through simple puppetry, sounds, movement .... By the end of the day the group will have been through a demanding game, each individual will have been helped in overcoming problems and making decisions. In the afternoon sessions, there is the possibility of being able to transform and transcend the experience of the ‘journey’ into something over which participants have gained real control.

It’s wrong to describe this work as a ‘show’ or a ‘performance’. Even the word ‘audience’ sits uneasily within this theatre, because in some ways the barriers between performer and audience disappear - both are equal participants. Part of the wonder of these projects is how the most basic elements of play and theatre are conjured up.

'Guided Imagery' has been influential in the UK and abroad, in using theatre as a way of opening up possibilities in the care and training of people with learning differences.

"A patient described it as the greatest experience of her life."
CLINICAL NURSING MANAGER

GUIDED IMAGERY PROJECTS 1999 - 2004:

1. SPOONERS GRAND PALACE OF DELIGHTS! 1999
This project was set in a Fairground environment, with a Hall of Mirrors, a Ferris Wheel, stalls and sideshows, Mermaids, Fortune-tellers.....and a chilling Deep-Sea Ride! Participating groups were thrust into an adventure, involving missing prizes, a distraught daughter, kidnap, and a mysterious photo-booth!

2. THE MAGNIFICENT MOUNTAIN MENAGERIE 2001
A visit to a Menagerie, which housed a wide range of domestic and exotic animals, insects and birds. The pride and joy of the collection is the unique 'Human Fish', which lives in a cave at the heart of the mountain (adjacent to the Menagerie). This cave is reached by a specially constructed underground train system....unfortunately on the day of the visit the train breaks down, leaving the group stranded deep underground.

3. FISH & SHIPS:THE VOYAGE OF 'THE UNICORN' 2004
A trip to a fish and chip shop unexpectedly turns into an epic sea voyage in a full-size trawler! This 'Guided Imagery' has been designed to work as a totally non-verbal experience. A cast of seadogs, farmers, lighthouse keepers, and a castaway, provide a thrilling backdrop to the journey of a lifetime.