During the first lockdown in 2020, Kerry Cleland and I were lucky enough to be recipients of the inaugural Make Space development funding from Catherine Wheels Theatre Company.
We wanted to create a theatrical community treasure hunt that built on the increased sense of community spirit brought about by the pandemic.
We started with different provocations and playful installations on our street—seeing how people would interact with them and what sort of responses we might get. We were keen to explore 'whole family' play and how people might begin to break and bend rules again after stringent lockdown requirements.
After that, we spent time in Catherine Wheels' unit working with Artistic Director Gill Robertson to develop a narrative structure for the treasure hunt, creating the character of Mr Yellow and The Colour Suckers.
We enlisted the entire community in a collective mission to reclaim our neighbourhood's stolen colour using secret phone box hotlines, coded postcards, chalk markings, and yellow wool trails.
