Green Eyed Zero

Successful regional tour for Green Eyed Zero

Between September and November last year an innovative new piece by Bristol based performance-company, Green Eyed Zero toured to venues across the South West. In the Shadow of Picture Frames combines physical theatre and spectacular circus skills - including aerial work, juggling and acrobatics - with music and innovative digital media techniques to create a chilling and ultimately tragic story. The tour was supported with £8,819 of funding from Grants for the arts and visited Truro, Dartington, Wells, Penzance, Torrington and Swindon amongst others. Green Eyed Zero are Rachel Pollard and Sebastien Valade who met at Circomedia, Bristol’s internationally renowned centre for contemporary circus and physical performance.

In the Shadow of Picture Frames began life as a ten minute piece that the performers created together for their Circomedia graduation show. A shared passion for innovative performance led them to form Green Eyed Zero in 2006 and initial grant support from Arts Council England, South West through Grants for the arts helped them to expand and develop the piece into an hour long show.

The company are particularly keen to, not only tour bigger and more established venues but also, tour the show to more rural areas as Rachel Pollard explains. ‘Opportunities to see circus as an integral part of a performance are limited – what we do is unusual and we wanted the work to go to people who wouldn’t otherwise have access to it. We did one performance where there were some deaf members of the audience who found the imagery fascinating.’

She continues ‘the feedback from audiences was really positive. Without the support of Arts Council England, South West it would have been impossible for us to tour – the grant made all the difference and allowed our work to be seen by audiences and venues across the region.’

A national tour of In the Shadow of Picture Frames is planned for autumn 2009.