The People’s Palace of Possibility

For utopian scheming and rageful dreaming. 

2019 – Present

We’re in Rotherham!

 

The Palace is next appearing from the 14th September – 1st October 2023 at Mowbray Gardens Library, Rotherham.

Director: Malaika Cunningham

Writer: Joseph Houlders

Producer: Tom Dixon

Sound Design/Composer: Lee Affen with support from James Cooper

Set Design: Bethany Wells with support from Jack Poole and Roanna Wells

Lighting and Video Design: Will Monks

Palace Programmer: Sally Proctor and Sinead Hargan

Performers: Rose Gray, with voiceover by Pauline Tomlin and Reuben Johnson


Palace Archive additional team

Digital Design: Joe Bunce

Illustration/Graphic design: Hannah Roast

With special thanks to Linda Bloomfield, Sarah Lewis-Cole, Tim Jackson, Marit Hammond, Róise Goan, Invisible Flock, Lyth Arts Centre, Clive Wilmer, Lancaster Arts, The Albany, Artsadmin, Ruth Nutter, Ventnor Exchange, Flux Rotherham,Regina Mosch, Stockton ARC, Warwick Arts Centre, Sacha Gray and the team at ArtBomb, Sheffield Climate Alliance, and Rotherham Children’s Capital of Culture, and the many many people who have offered their time and energy to the Palace over the years.

The Palace asks how we find energy for change, despite our fear and anger about the future. It is rooted in utopias. The mystery of the utopias which have gone before, gone wrong, become dystopian. And in the impulse for escape; of doing something radically different to the world we live in.

 

The Palace is half-built. Right now it has a radio station, a pantry, and a number of escape hatches. The kitchen, which is at the heart of the Palace, is very well used. Utopian scheming is hungry work.

 

Join us for a feast, a conversation, and a howl of rage this summer.

 

This project has been on a long journey so far with many twists and turns.

 

You can check out the incredible Palace Archive (part of a postal / digital version of the piece created during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021) here.

The Palace asks how we find energy for change, despite our fear and anger about the future. It is rooted in utopias. The mystery of the utopias which have gone before, gone wrong, become dystopian. And in the impulse for escape; of doing something radically different to the world we live in.

The Palace is half-built. Right now it has a radio station, a pantry, and a number of escape hatches. The kitchen, which is at the heart of the Palace, is very well used. Utopian scheming is hungry work.

Join us for a feast, a conversation, and a howl of rage this summer.

This project has been on a long journey so far with many twists and turns.

You can check out the incredible Palace Archive (part of a postal / digital version of the piece created during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021) here.

Director: Malaika Cunningham

Writer: Joseph Houlders

Producer: Tom Dixon

Sound Design/Composer: Lee Affen with support from James Cooper

Set Design: Bethany Wells with support from Jack Poole and Roanna Wells

Lighting and Video Design: Will Monks

Palace Programmer: Sally Proctor and Sinead Hargan

Performers: Rose Gray, with voiceover by Pauline Tomlin and Reuben Johnson


Palace Archive additional team

Digital Design: Joe Bunce

Illustration/Graphic design: Hannah Roast

With special thanks to Linda Bloomfield, Sarah Lewis-Cole, Tim Jackson, Marit Hammond, Róise Goan, Invisible Flock, Lyth Arts Centre, Clive Wilmer, Lancaster Arts, The Albany, Artsadmin, Ruth Nutter, Ventnor Exchange, Flux Rotherham,Regina Mosch, Stockton ARC, Warwick Arts Centre, Sacha Gray and the team at ArtBomb, Sheffield Climate Alliance, and Rotherham Children’s Capital of Culture, and the many many people who have offered their time and energy to the Palace over the years.

Photography by Julian Cole

Such a thought-provoking and enthusiastic, imploring installation. More, more, more please!

Audience response, Millennium Gallery Sheffield, May 2019

There were just the right balance of activities- beautifully thought out and executed.

Audience response, Theatre Delicatessen Sheffield, July 2019

A great space for collaboratively thinking about the future and how we want to get there!

Audience response, Warwick Arts Centre, October 2019

It was very inspiring and F.U.N!!

Audience response, Lancaster Arts, November 2019

Related reading:

  • In November, The Bare Project hosted The People’s Palace of Possibility at the Gregson Centre in Lancaster as part of the Festival of Social Sciences with Lancaster University. The Palace focused specifically on the notion of ritual, stepping outside...

  • Back in the first lockdown of 2020, we adapted our project The People’s Palace of Possibility to take the form of an interactive story of rebellion told through the post. Over six hundred people across the country took part – participants...

  • Like many of us across the world, this spring all our plans fell apart. The first national tour of The People’s Palace of Possibility was all booked in and we were preparing to hit the go button. We had a dream team of artists and venues from the Hig...

  • It is snowy in Sheffield today, making everything very bright and clean-looking. It is crisp and cold. From my window I can see a man exercising in gloves and a hat in his back garden. I hope you managed to have a breather over Christmas and New Year...

  • by Jessica Mistry This was my first time being immersed in the world of theatre. It always seemed exciting and different, but I never had much understanding of what was involved creatively or how open it could be. Throughout this experience I have b...