Dramaturg: Malaika Cunningham
Writer: Joseph Houlders
Creative Producer: Linda Bloomfield
Community Producer: Sally Proctor
Set Design and Puppet-Making: Sarah Lewis-Cole
Sound Design: Lee Affen
Video and Lighting Design: Will Monks
Community Events Producers: Saada Osman and Valentine Nlebedim
Foraging / Permaculture Specialist: Aimée Georgiou Lormand
Co-created in collaboration with community partners including Darnall Wellbeing and The Manor & Castle Trust.
Supported by The Canal and River Trust and Arts Council England.
The canal is an industrial, green, lush, polluted, strange, and beautiful place in Sheffield. It sits along the edges and in between many communities, and like many things at the edges, it is fruitful, but often forgotten.
Along its towpaths there are hundreds of species of edible, magical, and medicinal plants. Like the communities which border this space, these plants come from all over the world – some were brought as crops, others by mistake as stowaways on barges, or as flowers to be planted in the gardens of the wealthy. The species here hold many stories (both real and imagined) they are the ones you remember using as itching powder from childhood; they are the leaves used to ease stomach aches; the ones which begin to glow purple when the moon is full; and the dangerous red berries best left untouched. These stories are ancient, global, and as important today as ever.
Since 2019 The Bare Project have been gathering stories about humans of the canal, as well as plant folklore. They have been leading craft, storytelling, music, and animation workshops with young people; leading foraging walks along the towpaths; and working with local community producers to put on multicultural dance, music, and food events. This work will culminate in September 2022 with a large-scale carnivalesque event, complete with film screening, dancing, performances, and a big ol’ feast.
We believe that there are great storytelling opportunities to be discovered in plants and our relationships with them. They can tell stories of great journeys, mythical heroes, or great healing. This has guided both the form and content of this project, and all this work has been designed around the permaculture principles of:
This builds on our pilot project with the Canal and River Trust Everyday Myths (2018), and forms part of a national arts programme promoting wellbeing and connecting communities with participatory arts events in urban & suburban waterway corridors around the UK.
A large-scale processional performance and carnival along the length of the Sheffield-Tinsley canal, co-created with participants who live and work there. The performance will take place in June 2022 and is being co-designed with people of all ages through community organisations and groups, schools, and businesses. It will include film, puppetry, live music, story-telling, and more. The visionary performance, and the three-year programme of workshops and events leading up to it, are a collective act of futurology, asking: what might the next 200 years on the canal look like?
This builds on our work with the Canal and River Trust on Everyday Myths, and forms part of Hinterlands, their national arts programme promoting wellbeing and connecting communities with participatory arts events in urban & suburban waterway corridors around the UK.
Director: Malaika Cunningham
Writers: Joseph Houlders and Zelda Hannay
Producer: Linda Bloomfield
Set Design and Puppet-Making: Sarah Lewis-Cole
Sound Design: Lee Affen
Video and Lighting Design: Will Monks
Co-created in collaboration with community partners including Grimm & Co, Sheffield Music Hubs, SADACCA, Darnall Wellbeing, and The Emmaus Trust.
Supported by The Canal and River Trust and Arts Council England.