Burn the Curtain  are a ‘Hands On’ site specific theatre company in the South West- where audience and performers travel together, work together, and build the performance together. Performances for the whole family, where you might least expect it, and will most appreciate it.

We aim to encourage;

  • Intergenerational play
  • Engagement with the great outdoors
  • Enjoyment of theatre and performance
  • Active participation in theatre and performance at a number of different levels.
  • The combination of crafts, theatre and physical activity.
  • The use of theatre as a tool to educate, and to create real world opportunities for eduction.
  • The idea that culture can be ‘hands on’ and accessible, not out of reach.

We work with new audiences.

When a performance is found outside a traditional performance space it becomes an event, a pleasant surprise. We don’t expect our audiences to come to us- we go to them. We want to engage with people who share a passion for something, whether it be bird watching, canoeing, cycling or book collecting, and we want to create work for them that will bring them to a communal space, on their terms.

We engage with the environment, and environmental issues.

How can we expect the next generation to want to protect our planet when they don’t have a relationship with the world immediately around them? In order to want to save the polar ice caps they have to first want to save the wood down the road where they play.

Often there is a lack of engagement with the environment amongst young people because they do not have activities that they enjoy which bring them into contact with the natural world, or they have no narrative structure to apply to it.

Our aims are twofold- to highlight the pleasure of physical activity, and to create a participatory event that is memorable and tied to the environment it is performed in; by creating an imaginary world within the real one, we are highlighting the natural beauty of our countryside- the story we tell here today, a child will retell themselves the next time they visit that space.

Our work is about family and young people.

According to a recent UNICEF report, British children have a high level of material wealth, but come bottom of the table when it comes to well-being. We believe that theatre, play, and intergenerational play can help to redress this balance. We aim to create events that can form key collective memories for a family, and encourage people to believe that cultural pursuits do not have to divide us by our age, our background, our preferences in genre, or what we feel is ‘for us’ , but can be accessible for all and can unite families again.

We wish to engage people in the creative process.

For us, art is a conversation between the creator and the viewer. What excites us about theatre is that that

conversation can be had in a literal manner, in a shared time and space. Our aim is to push that conversation as far as we can- so the show cannot happen without the audience having a hand in it.

Burn the Curtain is a company limited by guarantee. No. 7872554

To be added to our mailing list, or to request further details, please send us an email; info@burnthecurtain.co.uk