Idle Motion present Vanishing Horizon at The Courtyard (From Hereford Times)

Idle Motion present Vanishing Horizon at The Courtyard

10:50am Thursday 12th April 2012 in Theatre & Comedy

ALTHOUGH Idle Motion Theatre Company has been in existence for barely two years, the permanent members of the team have worked together for a great deal longer.

“We all met at Charwell School when we were about 13 and did drama GCSE and then A-level together,” says Grace Chapman.

The fifth member of Idle Motion is their former drama teacher, now artistic director Paul Slater.

“It’s not a school that specialises in performing arts or anything,”

Grace adds. “Paul Slater is just one of those teachers. We are lucky to have him still involved.

It’s down to him that we’re all together.

“We’ve grown up doing the same work, and it means that we work together very quickly and honestly.

It’s very special.”

Everything about the Idle Motion story has something of the fairytale about it. After university, the group got together to take a piece to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

At the time, Grace recalls, it was just a hobby.

Idle Motion itself began with taking things up to the Fringe: “The success of Borges and I” – their first piece, which was nominated in the Total Theatre Awards emerging company category – “spurred us on to start a theatre company. We’d just finished university and none of us knew what we were going to do, so we’re learning as we go.”

Then in 2010, Vanishing Horizon, the piece they will be bringing to The Courtyard on Wednesday, caught the eye of someone from the British Council and they found themselves invited to apply for the British Council Showcase.

Vanishing Horizon, a work about travel and the early days of manned flight, has been hugely successful.

“We were all overwhelmed by that success, and it’s opened up so many opportunities,” says Grace.

“Through the British Council we’ve taken it to Jordan, China and Taiwan. It’s 18 months old now but it’s done a lot in that time, and still feels wonderful to perform.

“Initially we just wanted to do a show about travel and flight. From that we looked at early pioneers of flight, and were particularly drawn to the women’s stories.

They were so brave and ambitious and driven – we were inspired by them.”

Taking the show from the initial idea to a finished piece is not easily described: “It’s a wonderful process but hard to explain how you get from the beginning to the end.”

The end sees a stage set comprised of dozens of suitcases.

“They give the sense of travel and adventure - the minute the audience walks in they get that feeling.

“People who come to see physical theatre having not experienced it, usually leave wanting to see more,” Grace observes. “The interest in the show from abroad has been really special and has shown how universal the themes are – everyone can relate to it.”

To book, call the box office on 01432 340555

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