the storm shepherd

The Storm Shepherd is an immersive audio experience for a child and their grown up which takes place within the home. As parents we recognised that the lockdown during the Coronavirus pandemic had turned out kitchen tables in to places of work, zoom meetings and often placed us as the teachers. We wanted to reclaim the space as one for adventure and play.

Stuart Crowther approached us with an idea to create a performance for children called The Storm Shepherd. We loved this idea! The performance intertwines our skills as socially engaged theatre makers exploring the invitation to participate and explores ideas around going out in to the world.

The binaural experience is beautifully designed from Stephen Hull to bring to life the storms and the world they inhabit. The idea was to take the table and to make it the set, the place of adventure and in order to do this we asked Lydia Denno to create a pack of things to do, explore and make before the performance. We love the idea that the performance begins the moment the pack is posted through your door and lands on the mat!

The performance runs at 40 minutes and during this you will be the stage managers, at other times the performers and at times the audience. The grown up and child hear different tracks but we took the time to make sure that the imagined space was the same so both hear the narrator on the left and side of them whilst the imagined cave lives on the right hand side of you both.

Whilst this has its roots in the Covid crisis it reflects on that in between age fr children where they want to go off in to the big, wide world but that it can be a bit scary and asks the grown ups how much do they hold on and how much do they let go. And as is with all of our work these are big questions we don't know the answer to.

“Metaphorical & poetic, punning & at times falling into rhyme, this piece stays just the right side of whimsy and fairy-tale – and coming at the end of a virtual imprisonment, maybe we all need a little magical escapism.”

North West End *****

Written by: Stuart Crowther

Directed by: Sarah Hogarth

Produced by: Emma Bramley

Sound Design: Stephen Hull

Scur: Harrison Scott 

Cora: Natasha Hale

Design: Lydia Denno