THE BUREAU OF EXTRAORDINANCE survey

The Bureau catalogue the changes and discrepancies that are yet to make their way on to the ordinary maps. They’re here to calibrate the cobbles, measure the mice, rotate rhubarb, and weigh hay. As they survey the settlement, no stone will be left unturned or leaf unlisted.

Audience sat in a hall, surrounding a map made of green and brown triangles, with blue edging, place buildings to recreate their village in model form.

With your help, they’ll blueprint your bogs, grade your grass, scale your streams and triangulate your trees. They need YOU to assist in the reconstruction, in miniature, of your community and put your village back on the map!

Glebe Spalding in a pre-show workshop, talks to a young audience member, as a mother and child make their model house in the background.

This unique participatory performance involves map making, model making puzzles, Unidentified Flying Objects, singing fish, blue-tack and balloons. It is about how special our villages and parishes are, and what we can do to look after them. As part of each performance a unique aerial film is made of each parish.

Silhouette of audience at night, watching a glowing light in the sky above them.

To create and develop this show Burn The Curtain worked closely with members of the Northern Devon Nature Improvement Area who are delivering a landscape-scale project within the Torridge catchment. This DEFRA funded initiative is one of 12 nationally significant pilots across England. Support and expertise were provided by Devon Wildlife Trust, Dorset Wildlife Trust, Dorset County Council and Natural England.

Commissioned and supported by Beaford Arts.