In the most extraordinary high-tech laboratory, a team of the world’s top scientists are attempting the impossible. Their mission is to create a robot with a real brain. Their aim is to push the boundaries of scientific discovery.

They succeed. And Robot Boy is born.

His world is the playground of the laboratory; it is where he belongs. Robot Boy knows the scientists have an important job to do and that he is there to help them, but sometimes he longs to explore beyond this world. We all yearn to visit unique and extraordinary places and for Robot Boy, the most phenomenal place of all is inside his own imagination.

A poetic story about humanity, responsibility and life with dazzling puppetry, interactive film and performance. The Incredible Tale of Robot Boy takes the audience on a journey full of curiosity and wonder.

This production was developed out of our Animating the Brain project, which was initially funded by the Wellcome Trust.

In 2015 Theatre-Rites received funding from the Wellcome Trust to embark on an R&D project to explore the parallels between the methods of brain investigation and manipulation employed by neuroscientists, with the methods puppeteers use to manipulate both a puppet and the spectators’ imagination – giving the illusion of a living brain in a puppet.

Taking inspiration from the classic Pinocchio story, we gathered a diverse team of artists to look at ways of making neuroscience engaging for a young audience.

By the end of 2015 we had developed the first 30 minutes of a possible theatre production which we revisited in October 2016, presenting 2 work-in-progress performances at Polka Theatre’s Brainwaves Festival, featuring our LabBoy puppet.

In November 2017, the next stage of the project was realised in a residency at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), spending 2 weeks in The Koala Ward (the children’s neurological ward) where we met with clinicians, patients and their families. Throughout the residency, we introduced people to LabBoy and helped patients create a metaphorical version of their own brain, helping them and us to reflect on their experience.

Mojo explored how we grow up and discover our mojo, in a world full of magic and mystery.  The cast guided a puppet girl, from baby to teenager, through a beautiful wonderland where objects transformed into dogs, birds and six legged-creatures – all accompanied by toe-tapping rhythms from multi-instrumentalists Adriano Adewale and Leo Altarelli.

A co-production with the Barbican and Salzburg Festival, Mojo performed at the Barbican during Christmas 2011 and then toured to the Salzburg Festival and the New Victory Theater, New York in 2012.

“As an adult, one is spontaneously caught/captivated by the fine choreography, the lovingly created characters of puppets and humans and not least by the power of imagination, the virtuosity, with which the magical elements of theatre are being used. One would wish to have such a lucky-charm as Mojo on many a theatre evening” – Wiener Zeitung

We created an enchanting environment that took the audience to the Antarctic and back. A series of simple white columns revealed hidden objects, emitted Arctic sounds and whispered wintry poems, coaxing an audience of all ages into a multi-sensory adventure to see winter anew.

The installation, by Sophia Clist, invited audiences to come in from the cold to explore the sights, sounds and magic of winter – without catching a chill!

This installation was at the Royal Festival Hall Ballroom, Southbank Centre London Dec 2004 – Jan 2005

As a giant mobile tantalisingly appears above the stage, Hang On catapults the audience into an aerial world of dizzying new thrills where the impossible becomes possible.

Hang On was performed at Lyric Theatre Hammersmith and York Theatre Royal in 2008.

“If you want to take all your extended family along to one show this year, take them to see Hang On at the Lyric Hammersmith. Tumbling along through a delicately balanced mobile of Charlie Chaplin charm and virtuoso circus play, this piece will lift one and all above the mundane into a world of infinite and childlike possibility.”

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A magical journey through a derelict 4 storey salt factory in the famous Zollverein Coking plant in Essen, Germany.  

Sue Buckmaster (Artistic Director) and Louise Ann Wilson (Designer & Co-Director) were initially intrigued by the transformations and chemical processes that had taken place in the salt factory, and aware of how important the factory and the whole coking plant had been to the community in Essen.  

The building was originally home to the transformations and chemical processes that created sodium phosphate (salt) from coal. During each performance, 90 audience members were taken on a journey inspired by the space, its history, alchemical imagery and the power of archetypes. 

Salt was presented at the Ruhrtriennale Festival, Germany in 2008. 

A magical, musical exploration for young audiences of how, from an early age, we discover sound. 

In this energetic show everyone wants to make themselves heard. Things are not what they seem to be, and nothing will keep quiet.

Mischievous musicians and a playful puppeteer conduct an ever-changing world in which instruments become puppets, people become instruments, and everything takes on a life and a sound of its own.

In One Ear toured in 2004/05 and 2006.

Hospitalworks was first created in London, when Theatre-Rites transformed a disused ward in the Mayday University Hospital, a working London hospital. Co-produced with Polka Theatre and Theater der Welt, Germany’s largest theatre festival, Hospitalworks was then recreated in an empty hospital ward in Stuttgart, Germany.

Audiences were guided through a series of rooms magically transformed by performance, object puppetry and installation. Drawing on children’s fascination with the game of doctors and nurses, this unique performance turned the hospital environment into a playful and enchanting place.

Hospitalworks was performed in London and Stuttgart in 2005.

The Broke’N’Beat Collective was a Hip-Hop gig infused with puppetry. The artists on stage shared stories that had come from young people’s struggles. Each story explored how individuals cope in this challenging world: what breaks them and what makes them feel strong again; about valuing your own narrative and finding a way of allowing that to determine the best way to live your life. 

 The production toured the UK and internationally in 2016 and 2017. 

Rubbish is a visually stunning and playful production, exploring the unexpected value of discarded objects. Our cast of excavators transform the contents of a series of bin bags to discover animated objects made out of rubbish. 

Rubbish toured the UK in 2013 and 2014.