A SELECTION OF MESSAGES FROM

THE HORSE + BAMBOO VISITORS BOOK 1996-2006

1996

Name: Bert Nijs
Town: Amsterdam. Country: The Netherlands
Comments: It was a very pleasant surprise to find so much information on the H&B site. I was just accidently trying out any information on the www regarding H&B when I found out about your site. I enjoyed the past three shows very much and would be happy to visit another show overhere in Holland this year. Good luck with all your activities.

Name: Gemma Taylor
Town: Trefforest. Country: Wales
Comments: A very visually interesting, and informative site. I was told your site was a good theatre site, and I wasn't disappointed !

1997

Name: Paul Lowe
Town: Greenwich. Country: UK
Comments: Hi, just looking at other similar theatre sites prior to relaunching our own on www.eea.org.uk. Yours is the best I have seen so far in the uk. Uses the web but retains orginality through the use of graphics etc.

Name: Dave Houfe
Town: Stockport. Country: UK
Comments: Saw your 'Creaky Floorboard' show up in Kirkudbright & the recent Nigerian play at Streets Ahead. Love your innovative approach and particularly like political subject, excellent, 'real' entertainment. Look forward to seeing H+B again soon.

1998

Name: Edmund
Town: Hawarden. Country: Wales
Comments: I very much like the site. I have seen all your plays since and including The Flood. You are without doubt the most well rounded and awesome theatre group I have ever seen. I have waited for every performance after I lept out of my seat, during the life and times of J.G.Posada, when the devil jumped up through the trap door.

1999

Name: marion schmoranzer
Mail: schmoranzer@hotmail.com
Town: cork
Country: ireland
Comments: thank you so very much for your beautiful, tense, great and frightening show!!!! hopefully it tells others what it told me - let people be (and countries) how they are! AKASSA!

2000

Name: June Alyson Crossley
Town: Burnley. Country: England
Comments: Hi all
Had a look at your website and can see why you won an award. It really is lovely, it's also really easy to navigate and has given me inspiration. Well done.

Name: Boris
Town: Todmorden. Country: Yorkshire UK
Comments: I squeezed into a very packed production of your' "The Flood" possibly, at the Ground Floor Hebden Bridge, years ago and thought it was one of the two best, most dramatic, most exhilerating bits of theatre I've ever seen. (The other was west end production of Peter Schaeffers Equus)
.

Name: Gillian Macpherson
Town: Derby. Country: England
Comments: I was lucky enough to see a production of The Girl Who Cut
Flowers yesterday evening in Wirksworth.I greatly enjoyed it
and feel inspired again to get back into this world of imagination.

Name: Catherine F. Goble
Town: Wakefield. Country: UK
Comments: I saw Horse + Bamboo when they came to West Chiltington Village Hall
in West Sussex on 29 July 1995. It was the most fantastic show I have ever seen and unfortunately have never
seen anything like it again. It was with great pleasure that my sister picked up a leaflet about
THE GIRL WHO CUT FLOWERS and sent it to me. I haven't been able to stop talking about you since!!

2001

Name: hayley williams
Town: chesterfield. Country: derbyshire
Comments: Hey there! Great site - got to say the images are my favourite bits - any chance of more, and bigger? Saw "The Girl Who Cut Flowers" at University of Kent - amazing! And so very scary (some poor child was crying). Just the sort of weird, childhood-nightmare type of imagery I like. Keep exercising those imaginations, guys. Gotta go: there's a goat at the door...

Name: Sarah Carter
Town: Manchester. Country: England
Comments: I watched The Girl Who Cut Flowers at Salford University for the second time and i thought it was absolutely spectacular. Your work is the real meaning of superb drama. Well done, i really enjoy your work.

Name: Tamsin Knowland
Town: Oxford
Comments: I saw The Girl who Cut Flowers on Friday evening in Chipping Norton with my teenage daughter. Brilliant! We really enjoyed it - so imaginative and varied. We were completely absorbed. I saw one of your productions some years ago in Letterfrack, County Galway, Ireland so knew that Friday's performance would be good but it was new for my daughter and she really loved it too.

2002

Name: Catherine Crowther
Town: Alnwick, Northumberland. Country: England

Comments: Just had to write to say how much myself and family enjoyed your performance of ' the Girl Who Cut Flowers' at Alnwick Playhouse in Northumberland last night. The music was superb, the masks wonderful and the play was very moving. As someone who moved from Rossendale in 1987 to Northumberland....I look forward with anticipation everytime your productions come to our area. I loved seeing ' The Wheel' in Northumberland, and then we also caught you whilst you were touring Scotland with 'An Roth' Your work is truly exceptional and so visually and intellectually stimulating. I can't wait until we see you all again. I tell everyone who will listen how wonderful you all are. Thank you all so much for such exciting Theatre.

Name: Edmund Cowpe
Town: Hawarden. Country: Flintshire
Comments: I went to see 'The Girl Who Cut Flowers' on Saturday at DAN. This was the darkest, thought provoking, menacing production yet (being an avid fan - The Flood, Strange and Unexpected Event, Legend of The Creaky Floor Board). The devil still seems to be lurking in the background (the goat?); however the balancing humour seems to be reducing and the darkness increasing. In a Strange Event the devil showing the photographs and the thought bubbles above Posada's head was brilliant, as was the devil springing from the trap door.

In the Girl who cut Flowers the Goat becoming the man was a particularly chilling idea (I hope the parallel was not that all men are devils). Was the girl sawing off its horns showing that the girl was becoming worldly after loosing her innocent view of the world in the wood, after receiving no help or comfort (I take it that the innocent child was the ghost rising above her in the wood). Punch and Judy perhaps the most sinister nursery characters buried her body as a child? When she came up through the floor boards, did she want the Goat to become a man? After all she didn't saw his head off in nursery rhyme style. Did the Goat eat the Rose, I can't remember seeing it later (the humour was again inspired). Was he frightened that the girl would recapture the house (returning to her childhood)......Quote of the evening from somebody in the bar ' I won't have a drink it will only make the nightmares worse'. I look forward to your next performance, perhaps there could be a little more light to contrast the darkness, didn't the postman in the Legend of the Creaky Floorboard go to heaven (the character with wings in the window at the end)

I noticed you have Workshops, are the any for an engineer who would like to learn a little more about this style of theatre (and way of thinking). It is such a contrast to the world of numbers and probability, it does help bring a little perspective.

Name: naomi
Town: wigan. Country: england
Comments: i saw your preformance of the girl who cut flowers last year. It was my drama teacher who told me to go and watch it, and i ended up writing my coursework on the play. I think it was absolutley beautiful and I would really like to go watching you again soon. By the way just so you know, I didn't drop a single mark in the essay I wrote on the girl who cut flowers and in the end I got an A* overall. A bit of that is down to you. Thanks.

Name: Karen Potts
Town: Canterbury. Country: UK
Comments: I saw Company of Angels on Saturday 19th and it was amazing...it was one of the most innovative and enjoyable productions I have seen, and being a drama student I have seen a few! The use of masks was brilliant and touching, the actors behind them conveyed all emotions and the storyline with great skill. Thank you Horse and Bamboo!

Name: James Corbin
Town: canterbury. Country: kent
Comments: The performance of 'The Story of Charlotte Salomon' that i saw in the Gulbenkian theatre a few weeks ago was absolutely wonderful. i completely changed my mind on masked theatre, and it showed me exactly what the possibilities of masked work are. it was a very striking and powerful piece. thank you.

Name: Nassia
Town: Exeter, Devon. Country: U.K.
Comments: Hello to all! I saw "the company of Angels" two days ago and i still dream of it...! it is one of the most magic, sweet, profound and qualitive performances I 've seen so far. I come from Greece, where i studied drama (history and theory of theatre, and acting) and currently I'm studying Applied Drama in the university of Exeter. I think all children should see this performance, and by "children", i mean everyone!! no matter the age! combining the cruelty of the reality of a war, with the magic of the innosent world of a child, you spoke right to my heart.
i thank you all, for giving me this opportunity, and for sharing this experience with me.

Name: Giles Spence-Morrow
Town: Ottawa, Ontario. Country: Canada
Comments: Nearly three years later, I am still reeling from a performance of "The Girl Who Cut Flowers" in Clonmel, Ireland as part of the Kilkenny Arts Festival in the summer of 2000. Upon leaving the small town hall the troupe performed in that evening in August, I felt so completely calmed, frightened and inspired in the same instance. I have yet to have experienced the same set of emotions together since, but truly hope to again in future. What you do is wonderfully unique. Thank
you

2003

Name: Katy Rushton
Town: Rossendale. Country: England
Comments: Been to see A Company of Angels for the third time today and it was just as good as the first time.
Thank you you.

Name: Karen Brenton
Town: Leeds. Country: UK
Comments: Hello Horse + Bamboo! I recently saw your production of Company of Angels, and it was simply magnificent. I have never seen such a powerful production in my life - it took my breath away. Congratulations to the directors, performers and team at Horse + Bamboo - may you keep producting theatre like this for another 25 years!

Name: Frank A. Huser
Town: Kampen. Country: The Netherlands
Comments: Hello Horse+Bamboo team! Tonight (October 16, 2003) I saw the 'Company of Angels - the story of Charlotte Salomon' in the playhouse in Kampen, The Netherlands. I was and still am deeply impressed, by the story and especially by the way it is played. It was amazing, so wonderfully dramatised. The subtle way you all played these caracters, the gestures and movements, so full of expression and so delicate at the same time. And great technic!
Tonight, after I got home (while listening to the cd with the music of the play), I emailed my friends and told them to see this play.
I want to congratulate you all with this magnificent result. And I sure hope that you will enjoy playing it. I hope to see you back in Holland next year or so!! Thank you so much!

2004

Name: brett parker
Town: north devon. Country: uk
Comments: We saw your legend and the creaking floorboard a few years ago and it was quite simply the best theatre we have ever seen. When are you touring in england again ?

Name: ukala olise
Town: abraka. Country: nigeria
Comments: congratulations on ur winning the cultural excellence award. You guys really deserve it but there's always room for improvement.

Name: Tess Webb
Town: Glasgow. Country: Scotland
Comments: I grew up in remote SW Scotland and have some magical memories of Horse and Bamboo. In the way of childhood memories I have one image that sticks out in my mind of a short film about a man in a suit with a very round (paper mache) head who came to lay offerings at a small waterfall shrine by the edge of a wood, its an enchanting image from a time when I was young enough to never doubt what I believed. I am doing giant puppet making with some kids next week and have been inspired by your site, thanx.

Name: cor smit
Town: castricum. Country: holland
Comments: We loved A STRANGE (AND UNEXPECTED) EVENT!
Surprised and inspired.

2005

Name: Connor Hopkins
Town: Austin, Texas. Country: USA
Comments: Hello from Texas. Your website is lovely and interesting. I particularly admire your mix of the folk tradition with modern technology. I found your site through the Heart of the Beast production of Company of Angels. Do you ever travel to the States? Best of luck.

Name: Mandy Ricketts
Town: Staffs. Country: UK
Comments: Have already signed the visitors book but just wanted to add that myself and 2 fellow students made a 2 hr journey up the motorway to see 'A Strange (& unexpected) Event on Thursday 3rd March. It was well worth the trip - what an excellent production, most entertaining thank you.

Name: Caroline Smith
Town: Stafford. Country: England
Comments: Hi Horse and Bamboo!
Just wanted to congratulate you on an fantastic performance of your current touring production 'A Strange and Unexpected Event'. I am a Drama Student currently working on a case study of 'Horse and Bamboo' for a third year double project. Three of us travelled up to Burnley last thursday to see your performance, and it was well worth the journey! We really enjoyed it! Great use of imagery, music, dance and wonderful masks and costumes, it was a real treat to see!

Name: Miguel Najera
Town: Morelia, Michoacan. Country: Mexico
Comments: This is my first and brief visit of your website. The Strange & Unexpected event it's like a part of my life because every year I live this magic festival in Patzcuaro, Mexico. Good look!

2006

Name: Jennie Cunningham
Town: Merseyside. Country: UK
Comments: Went to see 'In the Shadow of Trees'at Manchester's Royal Exhange last weekend. Just wanted to congratulate you on a superb piece of theatre with great attention to detail. Loved the way the Spirit of the Woods was conveyed, the pace and movement through out. Your information brochure was also very interesting especially the references to your research and influences which gives the younger audience a great example of the working process in your work and something I have not seen before in other brochures of this type. All in all very inspiring.

Name: Brian Flint
Town: Radcliffe. Country: Greater Manchester
Comments: We saw In the Shadow of Trees over the Christmas period (twice). We thought it was so good we went to see it again with my brother and his family. They also thought it was fantastic.

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