The Wonder Domes: Ventnor Fringe Festival, Isle of Wight July 2021
It was so good to be back devising, making and performing with Michele `O’Brien and Teresa Grimaldi with their:Wonder Domes Ventnor Fringe Festival, Isle of Wight
With Teresa Grimaldi’s artistically designed Wonder Domes depicting key characters and their finds and a map of eight Domes for Children to record what they saw in each Dome they found. I eagerly awaited any finds they made themselves to record in the Company’s register of finds. Thankfully Rupert didn’t bring a leaf of the amazing Chilean Rhubarb plant, but named it ‘Ru’-normous after his own name, just like those Victorian and Edwardian plant hunters of old.
Featuring 8 intriguing Wonder Domes for children of all ages to explore and investigate their own nature finds to be recorded by the Clerk of Veight and `Sons.
This new project premiered at the Ventnor Fringe, in the beautiful public gardens near the Putting Green focus on the following educational elements in an interactive and engaging piece of site specific theatre :
the history of plant hunting through the centuries.
meet Women plant hunters in role involved in collecting and recording new species of plants (Marianne North,
profiling specific Victorian/Edwardian Plant-hunters local to your venue (insert local Plant-hunter- Ernest Wallace etc.)
enabling debate on the current ‘colonisation’ of many finds of the past including the naming of species by western explorers in the nineteenth and early twentieth century
current environmental themes of saving the planet and valuing our botanical legacy.
Michele O’Brien promenaded in full black Crinoline dress as Marianne North a botanist and artist local to the Isle of Wight, Teresa Grimaldi posed as Marianne ‘in action’ paining the Red Hot Pokers that she is known for painting and participants eagerly ran to the final Wonder Dome where “Mr David” a local plant seller and propagator, gave them their reward of a seed in a brown paper bag with instructions as how to grow it when they got home.
Colin playing the part of Company Clerk recording finds for Veight and Sons
