HORSE + BAMBOO: A SHORT HISTORY

 
1976: Bob Frith worked with a small group of colleagues at the Bede Gallery in Jarrow on a piece that contained masked performance elements and live music. Withstudents at the Manchester School of Art, he developed new approaches to performance, installation and film work. That year he met John Fox of Welfare State, and spent much of the next two years working with that company.

In 1978 Bob Frith formed Horse + Bamboo Theatre, to create a site-specific performance The Legend of Ellen Strange in Rossendale. Many of the early company members were ex-students from Manchester, along with members of Matrogoth Theatre from Leiden, Holland.

1979: The first tour was Pictures From Breughel, and the distinctive style was already in place. This tour experimented with horses to transport the production to rural areas. Despite the complexity of organising this an subsequent tours, the idea was an immediate success. The horses attracted audiences who might otherwise be suspicious of unorthodox theatre; they helped create a sense of occasion; and the discipline associated with travelling in this way helped bond the performing group.

1980: Horse + Bamboo continued to develop horse-drawn touring shows. It also began to develop a number of community related productions. Fire theatre pieces are undertaken, and these often use raku-fired kilns. This year the company undertook their first major residency - at a reception camp for 'boat-people' refugees at Lincoln. In 1981 the first 'Guided Imagery' production was commissioned by a Special School in Salford. The first Whitworth Horse fire theatre piece was created for the travellers fair at Whitworth, near Rochdale.

1985: Tour of Andalucia, Spain with La Dama Azul. From 1986 the touring shows were generally performed in halls and theatres, rather than in a marquee, and although other commissions were accepted, fire theatre pieces were dropped.

1991: The company decided to develop a second show for motorised touring, thus extending the total amount of time spent touring. The decision had a major impact on the work pattern, and as touring began to move from a three-month to a seven-month activity, the number of other commisions were reduced. This made it easier for the company to plan tours abroad, and this year the company undertook a long horse-drawn tour of Hungary.

1994: The first of two large-scale Easter events were created for Westminster, including a performance in the Abbey. The company moved into a new base, the Horse + Bamboo Centre.

In 1999: Horse + Bamboo collaborated with Professor Sam Ukala, of Edo State University in Nigeria, to create Harvest of Ghosts, the company's first outdoor touring show since 1981.

From 2000 onwards the Centre has gradually become a focus for visual theatre, training, and puppetry, and is now, 2006, through the company’s Outreach and Visual Futures programmes, a centre for visual theatre of national and regional importance. 

See here for more details on the history of H+B Touring.