Created with local school children from Seymour Primary in Broadfield, Lookout is a one-to-one encounter between one adult audience member and one child performer. Two people of very different ages, meeting to have a conversation. They stand together somewhere high up, looking out at the streets and buildings of the town below, and begin to talk about its future. They see before them the world as it is now and as it might be many years from now.
Performances of Lookout will be taking place in a secret location in Crawley town centre on Thurs 28, Fri 29 & Sat 30 April. Performances take place at 12.45pm, 1.30pm, 4.30pm, 5.15pm (Thurs) 12.45pm, 2.15pm, 4.30pm & 6pm (Fri) and 12.45pm, 1.30pm, 2.15pm & 6pm (Sat) and last for 30 mins.
Although the tickets are free, booking is essential so please book your tickets here.
THE PERFORMANCE TAKES PLACE ON THE TOP FLOOR OF THE TOWN HALL MULTI-STOREY CAR PARK ON EXCHANGE ROAD, CRAWLEY
MEET AT THE PEDESTRIAN ENTRANCE TO THE CAR PARK ON EXCHANGE ROAD.
Please meet at the pedestrian entrance to the car park on Exchange Road, RH10 1UN. There are road works taking place in that area but head to the pedestrian entrance of the car park and you’ll find the starting point for the show.
A lift will take us to the 9th floor of the car park and then we will walk to the 11th floor via a ramp, where the show will take place. The show happens outside. Please dress for the weather and do wrap up warm.
You can park in the Town Hall Car Park. Charges apply. Children welcome but must be accompanied by an adult.
PLEASE ARRIVE AT THE MEETING POINT 15 MINUTES BEFORE YOUR SHOW START TIME.
As part of the project we are also hosting the Lookout Gathering ; a public meeting about the future of Crawley at Crawley Library on Tues 3rd May at 1.30pm.
Part of the aim of presenting show at this moment in time is to begin a conversation about the future of our towns and cities after the pandemic, and importantly, to enable children to not just be a part of that conversation but to lead it. We see this as an opportunity to potentially channel some of the hope and idealism of the children’s work into possible actions and outcomes that could benefit the whole city.
Here is a short documentary following a version of Lookout created with Inside Out Theatre in Beijing.
More about Lookout…
First created in Glasgow in 2015, versions of Lookout have since been presented in towns and cities across the world, from Manchester to Shanghai and Cairo to Llandudno. In 2017 the project was awarded the Spirit of the Fringe award at the Auckland Fringe Festival in New Zealand.
Now at this moment of uncertainty and upheaval, Lookout is undertaking a UK tour for the first time in over four years for a series of new performances created with children whose lives have all been affected by the pandemic in very different ways. This is a chance for those children to look toward the future, to give shape to their hopes and fears, to dream both of spectacular sci-fi utopias and all the smaller more everyday changes they think might make their home town a better place to live.
Lookout is a small encounter full of big ideas. An attempt to consider some difficult questions in a simple way. Half an hour out of your day that might change the way you look at your city forever.
Created by Andy Field
Produced by Beckie Darlington
Music and Sound Design by Tom Parkinson
Dramaturgy by Sibylle Peters
Originally commissioned by The Arches and the Unicorn Theatre. Supported by Arts Council England.
So far, Lookout has been created in Auckland, Bedford, Beijing, Bristol, Brighton, Cairo, Cambridge, Glasgow, Guangzhou, Lisbon, London, Llandudno, Madrid, Manchester, Milan, Riga, Sao Paulo, Salzburg, Shanghai, Tauranga, Vancouver, and Winchester.
About Andy Field
”I am an artist, writer and curator based in London. I make formally unusual, interactive projects that invite us to consider our relationships both to the spaces we inhabit and the people around us. In particular I am interested in our relationship with modern cities – much of my work has in some way attempted to either literally or figuratively explore the city and invite us to imagine new relationships with it. Over the last decade this interest has manifested in a broad range of projects, including interactive studio theatre shows, streets games, sound walks and unusual installations and publications.
A significant part of this has been work with young people. I have created interactive projects for families at the Natural History Museum, the Southbank Centre and Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol, including Curious Creatures, a week-long project at the Natural History Museum that saw over 6 and a half thousand people exploring the museum and adding to an ever-growing interactive installation that took over the whole of the Darwin Centre, the museum’s education and research centre.
Alongside this I have made pieces in collaboration with young people for Battersea Arts Centre, Metal Southend and the Arches in Glasgow.
I am also the co-director of the award-winning artist-led organisation Forest Fringe, a regular visiting lecturer at Royal Holloway University and a frequent writer for publications including The Guardian, The Stage and Contemporary Theatre Review. In 2012 I received a PhD with the University of Exeter, exploring the history of interactive performance.”
Find out more here.
What others have said about the project:
The project was a great opportunity for the children to think carefully not only about their futures but their city’s future too. Mrs McHutchison, Teacher, Blackfriars Primary School
A group of Year 5 children have been creating an imaginative performance about the future of our city of Bristol. Over the weeks we have been taken out of lessons to practice this impressive piece of theatre with Andy and Bethany. We created recordings of our voices 30, 60 and 90 years in the future to present to our audience. Each of us then had a series of very interesting conversations with complete strangers (and the occasional parent); some audience members had come from Germany, Italy and even Iceland, though many came from Bristol. We discussed the future of our city (from under our umbrellas at times!) and were left with many thought-provoking messages for the future. It had been a valuable and memorable experience for us and the audience: we feel very lucky to have taken part in such an amazing event! Ettie and Isla, Age 9, Sefton Park Primary School, Bristol
The lookout project was amazing, I liked to talk to the audience members and tell them about my favourite parts in Glasgow and I liked to hear about theirs too. Shakira, Class 6, Blackfriars Primary School
The children and the parents absolutely loved the experience. The children will remember the people they have met (I am sure) for the rest of their lives despite the fleeting nature of the encounters. Paul Earley, Year 5 teacher, St Luke’s Primary, Brighton
Lookout is a warning and a challenge: a little thing that leaves big questions behind; an intimate encounter that manages to take in the entire city. It gives you a glimpse of a possible, even a probable, future – one that may or may not include you – and charges you to do something about it. Not for your sake, or for mine, but for the future itself. Matt Trueman, WhatsOnStage
