What's the story with the Minis?

Have you seen the MINIs?
Passers by will have seen a Mini or two parked outside Hall for Cornwall recently on Lemon Quay.  They’re brand new and rather cryptically decked out with messages about “MINI-malism coming soon…”.  Clearly, Hall for Cornwall is “Up to something”.

We’ve a track record for doing things a little differently here.  Not so long ago we were responsible for life-size cows popping up all over the place.  More recently, we’ve been seen carting about huge sections of knitted scarf as we continue to coordinate Cornwall’s bid to capture the Guinness World Record™ for the longest scarf in the world.


What’s MINI-malism all about?
MINI-malism came about because Ocean BMW in Falmouth kindly donated a couple of Minis to allow us to create something new and exciting.  Our Head of creative engagement, Polly Agg-Manning is a big fan of theatre of the absurd, and what could be more absurd then touring a performance around Cornwall in a pair of Minis?


We wanted this tour to feature new work, developed in Cornwall and so between November 2010 and February 2011 we have run a series of writing workshops at the hall for members of the public who wanted to give play writing a go.  These workshops have been led by professional writers and actors, introducing the genre and leading playwrights of absurd theatre.

All participants have now submitted scripts and the four we think will work best at our selected locations will be passed to professional actors to be performed around Cornwall.
How will it work?

Performances will take place in, and around the minis.  Plays are performed by two actors (in the front) to an audience of two in the back seats. We anticipate three performances a day running Thursday- Sunday weekly in May and early June.  We can confirm that tickets will cost £50 plus theatre fund for two seats per performance and will be on sale in early April.

Guests will rendevous with the mini and actors at a pre-arranged point, and be driven a short distance to an iconic/scenic Cornish location to enjoy the performance before being returned to their own vehicles.



Obviously, with an audience of two per show, this tour will quite likely sell out in record time!  Each play will be streamed online (the performance will be live-recorded on location) at some point during it’s run so we can reach a wide audience – though obviously nothing will be quite as good as being in the audience!  We also have plans for the final performance to be streamed online live and we’ll be setting up a location for people to come and watch it FREE at an outdoor location.

The project has received generous funding support from Worldwide Financial Planning as well as a range of Project Partners .

Why?

We’re acutely aware at Hall for Cornwall that the geography of the county doesn’t always make access to the theatre easy for people who live further away from Truro. One of the benefits of the MINI-malism tour is that we are taking theatre outside of the building and onto the road (quite literally!).

We’re also very keen to develop new talent wherever we can – and this project has proved to be a popular opportunity for new writers to have a go at writing and to see their work performed as part of a professional tour.

Another important achievement for us is to remain innovative and unique.  We’re not aware of any other show touring the UK in quite this format.  If we can encourage creativity and skills locally, take theatre out into the community and create an experience unique to Cornwall, we feel we have achieved a winning formula.

Look out for further details of the MINI-malism tour online!  Join the facebook page and follow us on Twitter @MINImalismhfc.