An introduction to Natural Theatre Company

by Ralph Oswick, Artistic Director

The Natural Theatre Company has been in existence since 1970, and in that time we've had many adventures on the streets of the world. Our theatre is based on well-observed British eccentric characters, most of which are recognised (and laughed at) by people everywhere.

Because our style of visual humour transcends language barriers, we have visited an extraordinary number of countries, mostly on behalf of the British Council. Countries visited include Brazil and most of South America, Central America, China, Pakistan, Australasia, Japan, Central Asia, Russia and North America. In Costa Rica we performed for the President at a cabinet meeting. In Russia, we were painted red all over for a visit to Lenin's Tomb and in Brazil did workshops for street children in the slums.

We have regularly performed at Glastonbury Festival, where the Kissing Coppers are legendary, as well as at both of the Jubilee concerts at Buckingham Palace. The Naturals are equally at home appearing at a local shopping centre, or at the VIP parties at Hampton Court Flower Show. An exciting adventure recently was being chosen to lead the Queen's 50 Years Parade up The Mall, along with 30 nannies.

The company has worked at most of the leading European Festivals, and usually comes home with an award, the most recent of which was 'Kings and Queens of the Romanian Laughter Feast' in Bucharest. Because of our popularity, we tour several groups at one time. Once a booker in Folkestone was alarmed to see one of the Natural Theatre trucks driving on to a ferry, when he knew he had arranged for them to perform for him that day. The answer was simple; it was the opening of the Channel Tunnel, and the towns at both ends had booked the Naturals!

In 2000, Natural Theatre performed a year-long street theatre residency at the Millennium Dome. This involved training up to 50 new performers and although overall the Dome is regarded as a bit of a failure, for us it was a fantastic project. Of course the public were glad to see something live and interactive, and the young performers were given a great start to their careers. As well as being at the Dome that year, the company still carried on touring around the world and notched up an amazing 45,000 performances.

Of course, being fearless street performers, some of us have been arrested several times over the years. However, when the audience spilled into the road in Ipanema, the fearsome traffic cops that roared up on their motorbikes actually directed the traffic around us and over the pavement!

We don't just perform on the streets - we sometimes appear in an aircraft carrier, on trains and planes, in shop windows, at the Tower of London, on Bondi and Copacabana beaches, in circus rings, on parachutes, in a cage at the zoo and even occasionally on stage, would you believe!

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Natural Theatre Company's Style & Production Process

Formed in 1969 as a collective of artists working in mixed media, Natural Theatre Company is now a professional touring group of anything up to 20 performers. We tour 'street theatre' (indoor and out) throughout the year, with occasional full scale indoor shows. These run not only throughout Britain, but also in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Indeed, we now regularly sell out in Hamburg at the famous St Pauli Theatre each time we appear.

We specialise in a particular style of street performance that we have made our own. It is a peripatetic form of theatre, using the environment and whatever is encountered as a part of the action. The work is always humorous, sometimes political and highly visual, a facet that emerges from the Visual Arts backgrounds of many of the performers. Our characterisations are often described as very 'British' and this is as much to do with the irony that we employ, as the figurative form of the pieces created. Our creative process is also unique - characters are mostly observed from life, then either magnified or understated and placed in extreme and sometimes hostile situations. This tends to heighten their 'absurdity'. If pressed, we would describe ourselves in artistic terms as 'absurdists'.

A great deal of our work involves gross self-mockery, of not taking ourselves 'seriously', although we execute these things in the most serious way we can. We make theatre on the streets to surprise and intrigue our audience, to make them stop their normal daily routine, to allow their imagination free rein. To make them laugh at us and thereby to make them laugh at themselves.

The Difference Between Creating Street and Indoor Work
The starting point for either type of performance often springs from a similar source. This may be an initial idea, thought or special interest of one or more of the creative team - that is to say, any one of our performers - and is, like any other starting point, a hard thing to pin down. The 'creative process' is often a collage or kaleidoscope of visual and cerebral notions, tempered with the practicalities of making them into physical reality.

The starting point for a new street piece can vary tremendously. At one extreme a performer may be suddenly inspired by such things as an item in a newspaper or TV or an encounter with an eccentric real-life character, to the other extreme of being commissioned by a booker to create a one-off character piece. Often however, such characters filter down into our repertoire of scenarios to be refined and adapted into 'hybrids', and in turn recycled into variations of the original. This is a constant running line that colours our work - the idea of 'variations on a theme'. As our street characters rarely perform a 'show' - that is, a set piece with a beginning, middle and end - but instead improvise around a theme, there is no need to give the pieces a narrative.

Our indoor shows, on the other hand, do demand such a 'story line', and we often start with the characters first, putting them into credible and incredible situations and noting down from workshop observations how they behave. The creative process here is much more refined and precise as we are of course under the twin pressures of time and results.

Recently, our indoor shows have also relied heavily on live music and song, so we have employed the services of a composer / musical director to be present throughout the rehearsal period. From improvisation we now self-pen all of our indoor shows as a matter of course, as our previous occasional use of outside writers proved unsatisfactory. We all became trapped within a too-rigid framework. Also, of late, our shows have featured real-life 'historical' figures, so we research them thoroughly and use real events as a basis (usually to work away from).

Ralph Oswick and Brian Popay are founder members of the company and are somewhat like 'Trustees of the Style'. They know instinctively what a 'Natural Theatre' show is, and, just as importantly, what it isn't. They will bring a pot-pourri of ideas, scenes, characters and situations to the initial concept and to the first outline draft of any new 'play'. These images and ideas are often inspired by the previous year's outdoor work, so can be mainly visual to begin with. It is through the improvising skills of the performers and director that a written script emerges. This workshop writing process usually takes half of the month-long rehearsal period allowed for a new indoor show. Once complete, it is never outside the bounds of possibility to make changes to the script and even the structure of the show when it is on the road. The show 'Nutcrackers' was being refined even up to its last performance - not because it was a bad show, but because the performers and director kept seeing exciting alternative endings to the piece.

How NTC's Work is Devised
Our methods for devising street theatre differ greatly from our indoor show processes. Firstly, the nature of the performers is different. We employ performers for our street teams who are not necessarily from the acting profession. Their skills include sculpture, painting, writing and all manner of other trades and professions and we therefore go about the creative process in various ways. We hold an annual workshop for street performers and it is often during these times that we sit down and throw new ideas around. These suggestions may be taken up and any props or costumes then made or found. At the end of the week, the piece will be 'tested' on the street in front of an unsuspecting public, with one group of performers trying it, while another group observes. We then discuss the work, suggest refinements or alterations and agree to either develop it later or to abandon it in to the dustbin of failed ideas. Our residencies at major Expos and Garden Festivals worldwide have turned out to be good proving grounds for new work and variations on existing pieces. These long periods spent in one place focus the minds of performers and allow them the freedom to indulge their imagination.

The Number of People Involved in the Creative Process
This is entirely dependent on who is around and / or employed by the company. Obviously, ideas do not only occur when performers are under contract. Our body of street performers has been built up over ten years or more, so people are in tune with the 'Natural' style and are constantly coming up with new twists and angles. Our main problem is to turn them into physical realities, mainly due to time and money considerations.

Our work patterns are determined by the availability of bookings throughout the year of course, so there are fallow periods both in terms of work and in terms of new pieces. Part of Brian and Ralph's job is to keep the company's pool of ideas topped up, and to encourage and collate ideas from company members. They are also responsible for identifying new areas for work that might be exploited, together with encouraging new people to get involved with the company.

Regarding Time Allowed for the Creative Process
An indoor show would typically be given one month's rehearsal, although there would have been several months of thought and outline scenario drafting before this. The show title and general description will have been created as much as one year in advance, simply to secure bookings for the show. The world of small scale touring theatre is ruled very much by budgetary considerations and forward planning, both on the part of the bookers and the company. The time scale for the creation of a new street scenario is far more open-ended, with constant refinements, changes, adaptations and variations happening throughout the preparation and indeed the performances themselves.

Whether A Show Or Performance Is Deemed Successful Or Not
The success or failure of the two different forms of our work is probably judged in similar terms. From our point of view, it is public approval, audience involvement and general satisfaction with the offering, together with a measure of critical acclaim from either the organisers, the press or others that go towards letting us know that we have a successful piece. These factors are considered alongside the performers' satisfaction with their own performance, and the piece as a whole.

In finer detail, it is probably easier to assess the success or failure of an indoor show as this represents the formal face of theatre. The street work is harder to criticise and analyse in standard 'theatrical' terms, as the focus and dynamic are constantly changing due to the nature of the outside environment. What might be successful in one place will sometimes turn out not to work in another. This makes for more excitement and danger, as one can never be sure exactly what is going to happen.

'William Tell' on the other hand, has been a universally acclaimed hit, which is a great pleasure to us. We, of course, knew it was good, but it was a case of waiting to read the opinions of others. These newspaper reviews have been of great value to us and will be crucial in selling the show for a second run. If we had not had such good press reports, then a re-tour of the show would have been unlikely. This is the central difference between indoor and street work - the indoor shows are almost entirely reliant on good press notices while the outdoor pieces rely mainly on testimonials from satisfied clients. This is probably due in the main to the preference of drama critics to review a show from the comfort of a good seat in a warm theatre, rather than stand and watch from a windy street corner in the middle of winter!

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Questions & Answers: Replies to questions we've received over the years

1. What are you trying to do with your theatre?
Our theatre does not have a 'purpose' as such. We are not storytellers, teachers or moralists. Rather, we set out to engage, bemuse, intrigue and amuse an audience. If we find the subject matter of our work interesting then we believe there is a good chance that others will too. Our theatre is created from observations and responses to life - distilled into humorous overview of the world. Like the court jesters of old, we are modern 'fools'.

2. Why do you work in the street?
We first started to perform in the streets because no one would let us perform inside! The street is the most exciting place to 'put on a mask'. You never know who will be watching or how they will respond (or not). People are taken by surprise and so react with complete honesty. Theatregoers are self-conscious by comparison. They have made a decision to go to a place 'where theatre will happen'. Consequently, they are prepared and ready to have their emotions manipulated, or conversely, they have come with the intention of not being affected. In contrast to this, the street is a dangerous place with wild emotions on the loose, and it is this danger that makes it exciting to the performer. No one can be sure exactly what will happen.

3. You also do indoor shows - is that because they are of greater financial benefit?
Almost without exception, any touring indoor show loses money. We always attempt to break even and sometimes, if a show works commercially abroad, we can end up with a small profit. We do indoor shows because we enjoy doing them. They offer a more precise and controlled environment for the presentation of ideas and situations. They are often good seedbeds for the cross-fertilisation of ideas to and from the street performances. Indoor performances are generally taken more seriously by critics than our outdoor offerings and consequently help to raise our profile in the world of 'straight' theatre. And historically, we first did an indoor show before an outdoor one!

4. How did the company start? Was it intentional to use the street or accidental?
The company came together very much by chance. A number of like-minded people found themselves in Bath in late '60s / early '70s with a lot of creative energy and a shared interest in the 'Arts'. Thanks to the committed efforts of a few of those people, the idea of an alternative Arts Centre was floated (an aspiration that is still not fully realised in Bath). These founding members came from a variety of Arts backgrounds - painting, drama, music, poetry - and gradually fell in together to form a recognisable entity known as Bath Arts Workshop. The Natural Theatre Company was always the core activity around which every other one took place - everything was deliberately 'theatricalised'. This included manual jobs such as furniture removals, shop keeping, and so on - all such tasks were given a sense of fun and a quality of performance to make them more interesting to all concerned. This kind of activity became known as 'Community Arts', although this term was not in common use when we began. Gradually, over about 15 years, each of the 'community' or social work activities fell away and we were left with just the Natural Theatre Company as the mainstay of the organisation. In the very beginning, it was not intentional to use the street as our stage, but it followed on quite naturally from our first outdoor events in parks and gardens, mainly for children's multi-media activities. These happened partly because we had no permanent building in which to operate, and partly as a public expression of our existence.

5. Is it political theatre? If so, what is the relationship between the political nature of the work & the street?
The work is not political in any partisan sense. The general guiding politics of the original members was anarchic and the work provocative in that sense. It still has an underlying anarchy because working on the street is unpredictable and our appearances are often unannounced. The content is generally improvised and therefore 'uncontrolled' as a result. In some countries the simple act of performing in the streets without official permission is a serious offence and could be construed as a political action. It is often a sure-fire way of getting arrested. Sometimes we will perform a piece that is deliberately designed to cause provocation. For instance, where there might be a protest occurring against heavy-handed authority, such as a pro-environment action etc. In this sort of situation we might decide to appear as supporters of the other side of the argument, upping the ante as it were and playing devil's advocate. This behaviour tends to polarise the opinions of anyone on the sidelines and makes the point more humorously and therefore more memorably.

6. Why have you stayed in Bath?
We have stayed because firstly we like living here - Bath is a city, but it's not too big as to be impersonal. Although it took us many years to become 'established' and accepted as a useful asset to the city's life, we now find ourselves as part of the cultural fabric of the city. So much so in fact, that we are regarded as Ambassadors whenever we travel abroad, promoting the city and encouraging foreign interest. The local council now actively supports our continued existence. Secondly, we created our own local community in the rather run-down area known as Walcot. We lived and worked in this part of the town for many years, running a shop, a small theatre and various other activities and more or less became the focal point for all goings-on in the street. We organised festivals, did community work, Christmas celebrations for the homeless and elderly, fund-raising events, etc., etc. We were very much the 'movers and shakers' of the area. Rent hikes and lack of money eventually drove us away from our adopted home and we then had to go looking for almost any kind of roof over our heads. Finally, after years of renting and generally scraping by, we became the proud occupants of a beautifully restored and customised headquarters near the railway station (a building that funnily enough we once occupied temporarily). It had taken us 28 years to reach this point.

7. Does the audience reaction differ between your street and indoor performances? If so, why do you think this is?
Indoor audiences are generally well behaved, so we try to provoke reactions because of this. Naturally, they tend to be more passive than people in the street, as firstly they know there are accepted conventions and codes of behaviour that apply when audiences go to the theatre, and secondly because they are seated and therefore cannot escape. As a result, they tend to feel more vulnerable when picked on. The reactions in the street are obviously much less controlled and controllable. Emotions are rawer and people are more likely to behave aggressively, especially if they think they are being deliberately provoked. This being said, the outdoor audience can be a very exciting animal which, if you can gain control of it, will go along with all sorts of outrageous behaviour. For instance, the invasion of various types of private property that are normally out of bounds - places like government buildings, banks, etc - can be accomplished with a great sense of fun and good humour. These public displays of anarchy can be a delicious antidote to the normal regime of day-to-day rules that we all have to live by and obey.

8. The work is very visual. Why are you in theatre & not some other sort of art form?
The visual trademark of our theatre comes from the background of many of our performers. We have employed people trained in sculpture, costume design, painting and so on. Our founder members, Ralph Oswick and Brian Popay are both Art School graduates. Their work, even at college, was always biased towards the theatrical - Ralph through his costumes and Brian through his painting and sculpture. This collision of forms has always been a driving force in the work of the company. We see no problem with this heavy emphasis on the visual within the theatrical - it seems quite the most natural thing to us. We will often employ other art forms throughout our pieces, but at the core the visuals are probably one of the most important factors that informs the complete body of work.

9. How do you devise & develop a show?
Please see the Style and Production section.

10. Do you use much dialogue?
In terms of our street theatre we have as many silent pieces as we do verbal. This is particularly useful when we perform abroad because we are not hindered by language. Also, the silent pieces are more mysterious - they do not immediately give away who you are or what you are about. They intrigue an audience and hence they are more willing to watch for longer. If we use English in a foreign country we will often play upon the idea of our 'foreign-ness' for comedy effect. We will try absurdly hard to make the audience understand us and take this behaviour to the extreme, usually getting words and meanings wrong. We often employ this stereotype of the English abroad - we find that it has much comedy mileage. Indoor shows are a different creature. Dialogue is fashioned of course with the purpose of advancing the plot, but we do tend to employ a large number of visual jokes and mime techniques within most shows.

11. Is your use of space different to that of conventional theatres?
One of the main determinants of the look of our indoor shows is the fact that the set always has to be of a collapsible and transportable nature. Essentially, the size and scale of everything is determined by the size of the vehicle that it must travel in. This is often frustrating for the designer, but also make us more inventive, with the set sometimes even turning inside out to change itself. We tend not to use a lot of fixed stage properties, but rather bring items on and off. The backstage is usually packed with props, the stage somewhat bare. We also use electrically controlled items and props made from traditional magic acts. We will usually venture into the audience throughout our shows, as we like to break away from the convention of the stage. We will also appear before the show in the foyer, or even in the street outside, again to break down this fixed idea of what coming to the theatre entails and to put people in the right frame of mind for the evening. Our street work employs the physical situation that it finds itself in, exploiting the different types of surroundings to its advantage and using them as the 'scenery'.

12. Why do your shows work in so many different kinds of space?
We are a very adaptable and flexible company. We are always open to change and are prepared to go to great lengths to ensure that our shows work in a variety of spaces. The world of small-scale touring makes this essential. Theatre spaces are often improvised from old church halls, huts, municipal ballrooms, libraries and so on and were never custom-built as proper stage spaces. Because we used to run such a space, we are used to the restrictions that go with these changes of use. More often than not the organisations running them are working on very low budgets with the best of intentions so we are duty bound to be ready to adapt. When we come to perform in a fully equipped theatre, we are ready to expand ourselves physically and mentally for that challenge, and it is generally the case that our shows never look small, even in a relatively large arena.

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A Journalist's View of Natural Theatre Company

'STREET THEATRE HAS A BAD NAME'
an article by Toby O'Connor Morse - Venue Magazine 1999

Street theatre has a bad name - dreadfully unfunny children's entertainers patronising the under-fives, students who have just discovered socialism, commedia del'arte insisting on sharing it with Saturday shoppers, and sub-Marceau mime artists whose performance shuttles between egocentric self-indulgence and misanthropy. Most of us avoid street theatre like the plague (except when we are abroad and therefore have a touristic licence to do all the things we would never do at home), since it is brutish, nasty and usually way too long. And yet the Natural Theatre Company - Bath's own street comedians - are universally loved, not only by the natives of their home town, but across the globe. They are slick, professional, and the darlings of the corporate events circuit. Their head office at Widcombe Institute features clocks showing the time in six major cities across the world, and a wall planner showing more inter-continental jet-setting than the Duchess of York.

Forget the local shopping centre, this is street theatre on a planetary scale. They've come a long way from their birth in the backstreets of Bath in the glory days of the late Sixties when art, community and enormous flares dominated the counter culture. Bath Arts Workshop, as it was then, took its idealism and performance art out onto the streets for the very simple reason that it was cheaper than renting a venue. Since then, the Naturals have grown into a global corporation, the stars of international trade fairs, Japanese theme parks and Brazilian shopping centres. They were also the British contribution to the New Year's Eve TV extravaganza that ushered in Copenhagen's year as European City of Culture.

The Naturals blend visual comedy, fertile inventiveness and a large pinch of total absurdity to produce a style of entertainment which Dot Peryer, the company's general manager, sums up as "very strange people doing very strange things ". The hundred scenarios on offer include the Canoodling Coppers - a policeman and policewoman who progress from normal 'evening all' patrolling to passionate snogging - and the Coneheads, probably the Naturals' most widely recognised scenario. They are tourists from outer space, a flock of bizarre, identical grotesques doing all the things which tourists normally do - pointing, gawping, and taking photographs of anything that moves or stands still. At one performance, a passing driver got so distracted by the Coneheads that she crashed her car into a wall. Which must have made for an interesting insurance claim form.

The Naturals' unique contribution was recognised a couple of years ago by the great golden hand of benevolence that is the National Lottery, with an award of £354,999 towards their acquisition of the larger premises.

The Natural Theatre Company's performances are not limited to the streets, hedgerow (I kid you not) and shopping malls of the world. They also produce 'proper' plays, indoor productions where the onlookers have the benefit of seats and shelter from the elements (although audience participation and the occasional bucket of water from the stage is still an essential element). Scarlatti's Birthday Party, the Naturals' bombastic, fantastic play about the composer who made the bad career move of being born in the same century as Bach and Handel, enjoyed a very successful run in Germany. However, such shows are premiered in Bath before setting off on tours around the globe.

The Naturals' singular formula hits the button from Liverpool to Latvia. This is not pure slapstick - characters like the Coneheads and the Stop Smiling protestors have a seriousness, intensity and underlying pathos, which lends the edge to all great comedy. Coming out of the Naturals' office I saw a woman wearing a particularly mad hat. Momentarily I smiled, until I realised that this was no Natural dressed up to entertain, just someone a little sad, yet comic. And that is how the Naturals make their mark - by highlighting the absurd in everyday life. Oh, and being very funny into the bargain.

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Press Quotes

"The skill of the company, which was earlier the success of the Hamburg Street Theatre Festival, is to turn a crowd of a hundred strangers into allies."
The Times

" ...the outstanding group once again of the festival...they spread joy and delight wherever they go."
Financial Times

"Most impressive of all I found the Natural Theatre. Everywhere, in all possible and impossible places, they were near the action. Their concept of theatre is to imitate roles taken from everyday life...to ridicule the cliché and make transparent the way one usually perceives it. When shortly afterwards I went through the pedestrian area of the city, my perception was totally out of place!"
Blatt, Munich

"What's great about them is that you can interrupt, unlike the usual type of street theatre, which like ordinary indoor theatre, has a beginning, a middle and an end. So, if you see anything happening, do stop and join in."
Irish Independent

"If one is going to rope in the audience, far better to do it with the larky spontaneity of the Natural Theatre Company; people almost fell out of their windows in their determination to see what was going on."
The Guardian

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Brian Popay, on his Influences and Inspirations

The Arts School Tricksters
from 'Street Arts, a User's Guide'

We asked leading street arts practitioners to address this question: "On whose shoulders am I standing?" This is what Brian Popay of Natural Theatre Company had to say about his influences and inspirations...

I studied painting at Ealing in 1966 and went on to graduate in Fine Art in the idyllic setting of Corsham in Wiltshire. It was here that I first saw performance and fine art come together to create a hybrid artform. Gilbert & George had been venturing into this area a few years earlier but it was still considered pretty way out at the time. Jim Parker was a sculptor friend who performed alongside his pieces. He would later form the performance art company 'Fine Artistes'. Their work was very eccentric and had a wonderful mischievous quality.

Mischief making has always attracted me. I enjoy trying to provoke a reaction from an audience. For me, the excitement is simply working in an improvising environment, particularly on the street. This is especially exciting if one is able to arrive unannounced or, even more effectively, when one is unwelcome or unwanted. This use of the theatrical in political action has always interested me. I have come to realise that any political issue or event can be underlined or undermined by an unexpected theatrical eruption.

Some places are of course more exciting or dangerous than others to perform in - a Natural Theatre team has just returned from a three week tour on the streets of Pakistan for instance. It's my theory that the British Council booked us as guinea pigs to see if it was safe to send British performers back there. As it turned out, the work was received rapturously and with phenomenal interest. Just appearing on the streets in certain countries can be a political statement in itself.

On the street, you're never sure whether you're going to elicit laughter, applause, delight or a punch in the face from the ironically challenged. And although politics may be currently dormant in this country, it's not the case in the rest of Europe. The work of Leo Bassi is a case in point. To watch Leo at work is an education for anyone who wants to push at the limits between life, politics and art. Leo goads his audiences, revealing their prejudices and provoking a reaction - which often turns out to be extreme and even violent. He's not scared to take on countries, institutions, political parties, trade unions and national identities with equal gusto. Proof that no issue is too dangerous or delicate as source material. I think that Leo is a direct descendant of Marinetti and the Futurists in this respect.

I've always been fascinated by performers who tread this fine dangerous line. The legendary but short-lived company, the Kipper Kids were, for a time, the naughtiest group in England and they were inspirational in their daring and lack of respect for anything. I maintain that it's the duty of any self-respecting street artist to get themselves arrested whenever possible. For me, it's only been twice so far - once in England and once in Holland - so I suppose I must try harder.

Comedy has always been the driving force behind the things I do, but having said that, it is always the images that remain in my mind. Coming from a visual arts background, I suppose that's inevitable. I mentioned Leo Bassi, but there are other foreign artists, particularly the current crop of French street companies who like to probe the flimsy line between public order and anarchy. European street performance has always been much more political than work in this country which I would suggest leans more towards the purely aesthetic. The French company Théâtre de l'Unité were a great influence on me, particularly in the way that they would suddenly shift the focus of their performance away from the action in front of an audience to a scene - perhaps across the road or even on top of a nearby building - using the whole environment around them as their stage, something the Natural Theatre Company has always strived to do.

There are three names in British street theatre for my money. They are artists that I have worked with closely over the last 20 years. This is by way of a testimonial to three performers who, I think, have never been properly recognised for the influence they have had on this British art form. Number one is Trevor Stuart, late of Lumière & Son, and now working with his own touring street company, Cocoloco. Trevor is the most generous performer I have ever worked with. He never hoards his ideas - rather he shares them out freely amongst other performers so that they can road test them in public. I have heard that there are some companies who only give workshops so that they can steal ideas from the participants and claim them as their own. This has never been Trevor's way - just the reverse in fact.

Neil Hornick, of the Phantom Captain Company, is next on my list. He has been and still is a big influence on the way I think about putting a street piece together. He possesses the same artistic generosity as Trevor. The PC's performances are like cryptic crosswords, a marvellous blend of the visual and the cerebral and always inscrutably funny. Alas, the Phantom Captain Company was mortally wounded in the first wave of the Arts Council attacks on street performance back in the 1980's. That decision meant that we have all been the poorer for not having seen the Phantom Captain at work in all that time. Those people on the 'drama panel' who sunk the Phantom Captain should feel eternally ashamed of themselves.

Number Three is Mick Banks, late of John Bull Puncture Repair Kit and currently with British Events. He was another seminal influence on my performance. John Bull's outdoor work was extraordinary - it was a mixture of music hall and surrealism and, in my opinion, they were THE performance company of the late 1960's. Sadly, British Events had to move abroad to get the funding, recognition and regular work that was unavailable to them in this country, but I did have the pleasure of working with them for three years and I learned a lot during that time.

These are only a few of many performers that have impressed and influenced me over time. Such artists as Forkbeard Fantasy, Welfare State, IOU ... the list could go on and on, but I don't have time to.

So, to conclude, I think that when I re-visit my performance heroes, it's the daring, the dangerous and the eccentric that always come to mind and in many cases there's an art school connection to be found there. Long may British art schools be allowed to give the time and the space to young artists to discover their talents and then long may they spill out onto the streets to take us all by surprise.

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