3 performers wearing old fashioned brown shop coats are visible around a wooden counter top. One manipulates a puppet which is seated on the counter made from various household objects including tins, brushes, paper tags. One puppeteer's hand can be seen behind a shop coat manipulated to appear as if it is a body sitting on the counter holding a clear plastic jar of sweets. Two other performers look on.

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Shopworks

Commissioned by LIFT and Wiener Festwochen in 2003.

Shopworks began life when Theatre-Rites took over an empty corner shop in Tooting, London. A shop with a mind of its own. Stepping off the street, audiences met the shop’s inhabitants: a bizarre group of workers in brown coats clinging to their daily routines – collecting, sorting, weighing, wrapping, labelling and stacking.

In this apparently ordinary world, a world of wondrous transformations and strange happenings where the items for sale took on a life of their own, audiences discovered what lurked beyond the counter as they journeyed deep into the hidden back rooms.

Commissioned by LIFT and Wiener Festwochen, Shopworks was performed throughout May 2003 in London, before transferring to a disused corner shop in Vienna, where it was recreated and performed in German and English.

Cast

Creative Team

Sue Buckmaster

Director

“ In the course of an hour, it develops into an adventure for all. ”
Star rating: 4 stars
Financial Times
“ Theatre-Rites has done it again. The show is off to Vienna this week, for the Vienna Festwochen: I'll bet that wonderful city has never seen anything like it in its life! ”
Animations Online
“ Theatre-Rites is one of those rare companies who produce theatre for children which is also immensely satisfying for adults. There are worlds within worlds operating here, surprises in every cupboard and cubbyhole. London’s most theatrical experience. ”
The Guardian

Shopworks Gallery

2 old-fashioned brown shop coats standing at a shop counter, one with its sleeve around the other's shoulder. They appear to be people but have no bodies. Behind them is a wooden shelving unit with various glass bottles.

© Trine Andersen

7 performers dressed in old fashioned brown shop coats stand behind a wooden counter pointing to and discussing the contents of a old thick book.

© Trine Andersen

6 performers dressed in brown old fashioned shop coats, peer out from behind stacks of old cardboard boxes.

© Trine Andersen

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2 old-fashioned brown shop coats standing at a shop counter, one with its sleeve around the other's shoulder. They appear to be people but have no bodies. Behind them is a wooden shelving unit with various glass bottles.
7 performers dressed in old fashioned brown shop coats stand behind a wooden counter pointing to and discussing the contents of a old thick book.
6 performers dressed in brown old fashioned shop coats, peer out from behind stacks of old cardboard boxes.
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