The above sequence of photographs forms the basis of my ideas for a collaboration between live 'psychedelic folk' performance and live, animated theatrical visuals. This is my stab at turning a folk festival into an all day ritual theatre spectacle.

The poetic imagery in much folk music overwhelms me with inspiration, and has always struck me as a form of storytelling in itself. So at last I am doing what I have wanted to do for so long, and attempting to create a visual narrative to accompany a day of folk performances.
The basic aesthetic framework I am using is that of toy theatre - the Victorian tradition of telling stories via flat, animated figures and scenery made of paper, performed within a miniature proscenium arch theatre. Only this toy theatre will be on a human-sized scale, and the musicians will perform within it, surrounded by it. A zany idea perhaps, but one that I have not been alone in entertaining - Terry Gilliam constantly refers to the scenography of life-sized Victorian toy theatre in films including the recent The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus :



and his 1988 production "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen":



Crucially, my aim is to "stitch together" the otherwise fragmented aspects of this all day event. There are several major linking themes running beneath the various acts performing on the day, which indeed sum up the themes lying beneath much British folk music - a yearning for nature, the desire to rekindle a long-lost relationship with some kind of mythical idea of Albion... I am going to try and solidify these themes in a set which undertakes a gradual voyage of transformation throughout the day, and which responds to the music performed within it...