There are lots of questions for theatres to answer, post-lockdown. With this collaboration between Theatr Iolo and Kitsch & Sync, Hoof! – the family show on a Wales-wide mission to revive outdoor theatre – has the answers.
How to ease nervous audiences back into theatre-going? Put on a 20-minute show with a socially distanced standing audience in the beautiful Welsh summer sun. How to share the magic of theatre with children who may have never seen a show in their young, pandemic-ruled lives? Bring out three tapdancing deer to entice the young audience with their antics. How to rekindle the magic spark that is theatre? Set the show on an abandoned stage where the deer discover the costumes, lights, devices and tricks of the theatre.
Not only that but, taking the reinvention of new-normal theatre even further, the whole show is staged within a recently repurposed exhibition trailer. Now a moving theatre, complete with solar powered battery that makes the tour as eco-friendly as possible, the trailer transforms into the stage at every venue. Touring from Mold, to Aberystwyth, to Brecon and to Ystradgynlais before settling in Cardiff for the Summer Of Smiles Festival, Hoof! is set to bring the much-needed joy of live performance to all corners of the country.
Kitsch & Sync specialise in walkabout theatre and they’ve brought their considerable knowledge and experience to this production. Theatr Iolo successfully toured the show during May and June and know they can bring the joy and excitement of this unique show to fresh families. In fact, if you are planning to buy tickets, be aware that you must have a child in your party booking of up to six, and that everyone, including babies, needs a ticket – available from the venues and the festival site.
A perfect reintroduction – or for some younger audience members a first introduction – to outdoor, travelling theatre, on the hoof.
Hoof! is touring Wales from Sat 24 July-Thurs 12 Aug. Tickets: prices vary. Info: here
words JOHN-PAUL DAVIES photos KIRSTEN MCTERNAN