The Black Box
Bootworks predominantly works on projects with The Black Box, a unique inside-out portable theatre for an audience of one.
If you are a promoter, and interested in booking The Black Box, please click on "Promoters Info" on the right for more videos, info and full technical details and touring information.
Black Box performances are a playful and artfully choreographed five-minute peep shows played inside out for an audience of one and one hundred. The shows are usually based on classic films and genres focussing on the unique ability to use different angles, cuts, perspectives and effects. In the past we have parodied The Matrix, The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, Spaghetti Westerns and Un Chien Andalou (a classic 1920’s surrealist film).
With a cast of six, performing outside a booth, the audience of one sat inside experiences the show through three shuttered windows. The cast perform outside the box, using light, (live and projected) imagery, mask, objects and puppets, exploiting the unique ability in film to use different angles, close‐up, long‐shots, cuts, pans, fades and special effects.
The Black Box itself is a fully portable theatre auditorium (for an audience of one) with the playing area of approx. 3 X 6 metres. We have fully integrated sound, lighting and power supply, and need only an hour set up and strike on performance days. In the past, the Black Box has toured to both indoor and outdoor venues and events. It is a small-scale performance installation that has been successfully been positioned in city centres as part of street theatre events, in fields as a fringe performance at music festivals and as a side show for venues such as the Speigletent.
All Black Box shows are around 5 minutes long, and play back‐to‐back by 6 performers, between twenty and forty times a day. A typical Black Box show operates in two ways. The Black Box is akin to an inside-out theatre project - the performance can be viewed either from inside, with the action mere inches away from an individual's face, or from the outside, where the mechanics of the performance are visible in their entirety.
Inside the Box
The audience member sits inside the box and views the main show: The booth has integrated stereo sound for the music and three 'screens' which are really small flaps that are lifted at different times for the viewer to watch the action unfold.
Outside the Box
We always attract a crowd of people outside, waiting for their turn to go inside, or just passers by intrigued by the spectacle. This audience views the performance “inside-out” watching the performers dart, shift and swirl into position around The Black Box, enjoying mechanics of the show, the “back-stage” action, and the tricks, devices and choreography employed to execute the imagery and physical action for the audience member inside the box.
A number of different sources influence the concept for the Black Box (for instance; Insomniac’s L'Ascensore [1992] and Stan’s Cafe's It’s your film... [1999]); where an audience experiences a live performance that intends to behave like a film. However, we do not want to create the illusion of being ‘in a cinema’. Usually we work on a thematic approach to create our work, taking genres or landmark ‘classic’ movies, and creating our own versions of their characters and narratives, often lampooning iconic scenes and giving the stories, style, and special effects, a deliberately ‘live’ theatrical twist.
Animated Schematic
Production History
We have made nine performances to date, video, images, and sound clips are available for most our shows, check out the menu on the right.
Touring history
Feast (X-Trax Showcase)Shipton Bellinger
Bramdean Fete
Fuse Medway, Gillingham
Greenwich and Docklands Festival
Newbury Corn Exchange
Medstead FestivalMilford On Sea Festival
Stockton Riverside Street Festival
I Am Joy Festival - Chichester
Edinburgh - Forest Fringe (BRITISH COUNCIL SHOWCASE)
Mintfest Kendal
Goodworth Clatford
Dartington School of the Arts
Bristol Do
Dublin Fringe Festival 2008;
Metal Culture, Edge Hill Liverpool
Bluecoat Arts Centre (Hubub launch) Liverpool;
Latitude Festival 2008/2009
Winchester Hat Fair 2008/2009
Farnham Maltings Festival 2009/2009
Warwick International Festival
Brighton Fringe Festival 2008 (“Caravan”), 2009
Glastonbury Festival 1999‐present
Larmer Tree festival 2003/2007
Chichester University (in residence; 2006‐present)
Streets of Brighton Festival 2005
1999-2005: UCAS fair (Coventry Ricoh Centre) 2005; Forest Forge Theatre Company Youth Group; Coventry University (ongoing residency); Loughborough University); Hope Street Project, Liverpool; Burton Latimer School; Deans Hanger School; Melton Mowbray College (residency for DMU Theatre Studies 2002/3), University of Northampton (in residence 1999‐2005).