Horse + Bamboo Theatre was founded in 1978. The Company is based in Rossendale, Lancashire, UK and tours nationally and internationally.
Horse + Bamboo Theatre make visual theatre in which music and story-telling is central; the company uses masks, movement, puppetry, film, lighting in their productions.
In 2008 Horse + Bamboo Theatre commissioned five artists to respond to the Valley of Stone and the related oral histories that were collected by volunteers. The artists produced a piece of creative work for exhibition at The Boo. Each artist - Ailis ni Riain, Emma Hunter, Jill Randall, Tracy Holland and the Valley Artists Studio Group also engaged with local people to produce a community based project, in their own art form which explored Rossendale's rich quarrying history and their response to it.
The following year, 2009, Horse + Bamboo Theatre created Deep Time Cabaret, an original performance using masks, puppetry, song and film.
The play was devised and directed by Bob Frith and the central theme of the show was the short film by the artist Tracey Holland, 'Hineingrabe', one of the pieces created in 2008. It looked at Rossendale Quarries and their association with myth and folklore.
The outcome was a flexible show sepcially designed for community centres and schools as well as theatre spaces. It lasted an hour and the first night was held deep underground at Clearwell Caves in the Forest of Dean.
The video below was produced by a group pf young people as part of the CAR Video Unit project.
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