Le Quai
Angers, France
Performance: 12 – 16 July 2007
Exhibition: 17 July – 19 August 2007
Angers
Here the show was presented in a brand new theatre, a beautiful place with the most enviable facilities and spaces. We were given the Forum space to take over – a vast foyer, with huge glass walls on three sides. This provided a spectacular setting for the show, with light streaming in from all sides and the sun highlighting different piles as it moved across the sky. It was great to have this much space and and 12 tonnes of rice to play with, allowing us to include a number of large statisics and a range of topics. (It’s always surprising to see that people seem more surprised by the number of people who watch the Eurovision Song Contest than they are by the equivalent number of children in the world without access to education.)
The tannoy made another appearance in this show affording some members of the team to make announcements in some of the fruitiest French accents heard since “Allo Allo” was a popular Saturday teatime TV programme. Radio Rice also made its debut, with announcements from the show being broadcast on the internet to allow those unable to see the show the chance to hear the changes being made. You can visit Radio Rice HERE.
This was only the second time we had left the rice as a static display and, after a few quiet days with a charge being made to see us perform, when we left the show had hundreds of visitors daily, with thousands having visited by the end of its stay. Even when the theatre was closed people pressed their faces against the glass walls in an attempt to get a glimpse. It was a bumper time for the window cleaners of Angers. When I returned for a visit it was great to see that the show had been very well cared for by our colleagues in Angers – it was as we had left it, despite the thousands of visitors.
You can see some movies of the show on the Le Quai Website.
Credits
Performers: Chris Dugrenier, Jake Oldershaw, Graeme Rose, Bernadette Russell, Karen Stafford, Craig Stephens.
Sound and Radio Rice: Jon Ward
Images: Karen Stafford
Concept: James Yarker
General Manager: Charlotte Martin
Advisory Producer: Nick Sweeting