Cry Wolf

In the 1920s and ‘30s the Spanish poet, Federico Garcia Lorca created a company. They would arrive within a community, tumble into a space from a horse-drawn cart, and, on a good night, weave a kind of anarchic magic. They played with the audience's expectations, twisting plots to undermine the predictability of folk stories. They combined the traditional, the modern and the personal. Poetry, laughter and tears were their ingredients.

I've no idea how close our performances might be to those of Lorca but I feel a strong connection to his fundamental principles.

In ‘cry wolf' I have combined and explored two of our previous shows ‘Wolf' and ‘Fish Boy'. ‘Wolf' was based on an ancient oral telling of Red Riding Hood, and, like many folk stories which have latterly been "made safe" for telling to children, this earlier version is ruder, funnier and more extreme. ‘Fish Boy' was based on a wonderful poem by Charles Causley, ‘Francesco de la Vega'. This poem has haunted me since I first read it. The writer D.M. Thomas once said of Causley - "Many poets are simple while appearing to be profound; Causley is the opposite".

‘cry wolf' is a celebration of live event, we have joined forces with the extraordinary Baghdaddies to create an international theatre of image and metaphor, music and menace.

And so, like Lorca's players, we tumble into town. I hope it's a good night.

Mike Shepherd - Director