SAY the word theatre and a picture is inevitably conjured up of a traditional building, a stage and actors on that stage, with the audience taking an apparently passive role in the auditorium.

However, anyone who has experienced the work of unique Herefordshire theatre company Feral Productions in the last two years will have discovered that theatre need not be confined by these conventions and will also be keenly anticipating the latest production from a company that has introduced exciting, edgy, innovative drama to Hereford.

“We loved what felt to us like a revolutionary approach to theatre,” said one audience member. “We’d never seen anything like it before.”

This year’s Feral tale, Shattered, inspired by the classic tale of The Sandman, a mythical character who brings good dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto the eyes of children while they sleep, runs from Thursday, September 13 to Saturday, September 17 at the Royal National College for the Blind.

Both writer Megan Barker and director Estelle van Warmelo, Feral’s founders, are reluctant to reveal too much about Shattered. But what Estelle will say is: “In this one the audience acts as the main character – they will be going on a journey, a guided tour of an imaginary world.”

Like both The Gingerbread House, and Locked, contemporary re-tellings of Hansel and Gretel and Rapunzel respectively, Shattered is a site-specific work.

“We will be working to the site at the college in terms of it being low visibility.

Shattered is very different from our previous pieces,” adds Estelle. “It’s a feel-good thing, refreshing, energising, exciting, interesting.”

Writer and director agree that, in year three, the brief to themselves remains very much the same: “We are trying to get away from the orthodox chemistry of black box theatre and the audience thinking they are passive. Our aim is to do extraordinary things in ordinary places, and to do that with people’s perceptions as well as with the sites.”

Estelle and Megan have now been working together for three years since being persuaded by Ellie Parker of New Theatre Works to form a company, coming together from opposite ends of the theatrical spectrum to create Feral. While Estelle’s experience had been “almost entirely script-based”, Megan had had “pretty much nothing to do with traditional theatre”.

The Feral approach to drama is exciting and innovative, an experience not to be missed by anyone keen to be surprised and delighted by the shock of the new.

To get your tickets for the latest Feral experience call the box office at The Courtyard on 01432 34055. There will be also be a number of tickets available, cash only, at the RNC prior to performances.

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Hereford Times: The Courtyard - Herefordshire's Centre for the Arts