Welcoming Troubadour’s Fix the Folio to the islands
This spring, we were delighted to welcome Troubadour’s Fix the Folio production to the Isles of Scilly, part of our 2024 Culture on Scilly programme.
The production was staged at the Old Town Inn on 26 April, Tresco Abbey Garden on 27 April and at Seven Stones on St Martin’s on 28 April and we welcomed over 160 people to the three performances.
The weeklong residency was initiated by Troubadour and we supported them in applying for sponsorship from The Scops Arts Trust. The company also received support from the Steamship Company who subsidised travel on the Scillonian.
The programme included three days of workshops in school and this was planned with input from teaching staff. Two days on St Mary’s and a day on St Martin’s allowed over 170 students - virtually all of KS Stages 2 and 3 - to take part in introductory Shakespeare workshops, including learning a song that featured in the show and all students were invited to attend the performances free of charge, enabling them to participate.
Troubadour are a young company with a base in Exeter. They have charitable status and tend to work in non-theatrical settings to deliver classic texts or adaptations. Find the Folio has been successfully toured on the mainland and is a fifty-minute, fast paced show with live music.
The flexibility of the show and ‘pop up’ quality using minimal props, costumes and instruments meant each venue had a distinct feel – lighting was used in the Old Town Inn with a cabaret style seating arrangement and thrust stage, on Tresco the Valhalla figure heads provided a backdrop and the show was open air with a light shower and a helicopter landing nearby. The barn at Seven Stones looked great and was full with standing room only. Around twenty students came to the shows and were encouraged to join the cast for the final song.
The short running time allowed for some follow up conversations and evaluation. Weather was mixed but there was considerable interest from visitors and having the company based at Longstone helped generate interest.
We handed out feedback forms at two of the shows, and from this we learmed that our audience was 55% residents, 45% visitors. These feedback forms rated the overall event as excellent (98%) or good (2%).
We received some positive comments from our audience members, including the following examples:
Wonderful, excellent, good fun and well executed.
Please come back to St Martin’s we’d love to see you again.
Loved it, amazing, we really enjoyed your performances!
Shakespeare on speed, more please!
A spokesperson for Troubadour said: “The coordination of this entire trip has been seriously impressive, especially when considering all the factors like boat times, tides and weather
Our visit to Scilly was organised extremely well. Jeremy was incredibly helpful in getting us around the islands and making sure we were well integrated into the community. It was great to see the children come to the performances that we had worked with in the schools. The sense of community here is fantastic.
They added: “I am staggered by all we achieved on Scilly in one trip - three very different venues and audiences and 10 separate workshops in six days. Not only that but we had the opportunity to speak to teachers and venue hosts, to arts professionals and shopkeepers - the feedback from whom will feed into our plans and progress moving forward. Jeremy has perfectly laid the foundations for a long-lasting partnership and I really look forward to working with Culture on Scilly again soon.”
About Culture on Scilly
With the support of Arts Council England, we are presenting a range of activities throughout 2024 which will help inform the programme of the new Isles of Scilly Cultural Centre and Museum.
Alongside our regular programme of events, we run and support projects and commissions which enable people to experience high quality arts and culture. We work with partners on Scilly and beyond to deliver work which focuses on community participation, building new audiences, and developing skills – especially for young people on Scilly.
Funding acknowledgment
We were able to bring this production to the Isles of Scilly with Arts Council England funding, and we gratefully acknowledge the opportunities this funding gives us to share exciting cultural events with residents and visitors alike.
