Skip to main content

Bridge

Bridge was an ambitious outdoor experience produced by Coventry-based Imagineer Productions, which had residencies in Coventry, Grantham, Dagenham and Liverpool between 2018-2021. Our experiences in Bridge provided the creative inspiration for Imagine Bamboo.

Within these pages, find out more about Bridge and our residencies.

The Bridge

A bridge appeared in the centre of town. It became the setting for a programme of free pop-up events and happenings, ending in an exhilarating live performance with an international cast.

A broken bridge is in a busy city-centre square. It is surrounded by a crowd of onlookers. Below the bridge, Sikh dancers perform in blue costume with orange turbans.

A broken bridge appeared in town and became the focus for three days of events

Daytime - Under the Bridge

During the day, visitors to the Bridge enjoyed a programme of free events Under the Bridge, including performances, conversations and workshops from the local artistic community.

Visitors could join in the immersive headphones experience Changing Sides. Taking a pair of headphones, they could listen to discover how the bridge came to be broken and a community divided. Participants were encouraged to move around a little and interact with other people – socially distanced – in this fun new take on story-telling. Changing Sides is captioned for those who are D/deaf or hard-of-hearing.

The Bridge Stories podcast was our collection of stories of bridge-building and bridge-burning, collected by the people of Barking and Dagenham during 2020. 

Visitors could also Put Yourself in the Picture with some nifty creative photography, where we found fun ways to bridge the gap in the bridge using a camera and a little invention.

An actor dressed in high-vis jacket and overalls raises his hands to the crowd whilst pulling a funny expression. Behind him a lady copies his action. They are surrounded by musicians and audiences. People are smiling.

Under the broken bridge, a group of 15 people are wearing headphones and running around in a circle.

During the day the Bridge was home to fun performances and an interactive free headphones experience 

 

Evening - Bridge performance

Bridge culminated in an extraordinary evening performance, with an international cast of performers. With gravity-defying circus acrobatics, parkour, theatre and live music, some unusually agile engineers attempted to bridge the gap and found it much, much harder than they thought.

It is nighttime and the broken bridge is dramatically lit in blue. Actors are at the top of the bridge, looking down as a shower of paper scatters to the ground. A large audience looks on at the performance.

An acrobat lies on a ladder suspended on the broken bridge several feet above the ground

A young girl sits on her dad's shoulders, looking over the crowd as a performance begins. The bridge is colourfully lit.

Bridge culminated in a spectular night-time performance

 

Bridge Building

In each town, local people made their own bridges and shared stories of bridge-building (and bridge-burning). People and groups who wouldn't normally meet were invited to assemble a large self-supporting bridge, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s design. 

A group of people pose next to a bridge made of wooden poles. They are on a sports pitch. There is a banner and flags that read Bridge.

The Leonardo da Vinci bridge kit is available to community groups

This article about Bridge, published by Burning Man (USA), gives more insight into the project and our aims fo the future.

Bridge was created by artistic director Orit Azaz in collaboration with a creative team that included designer Dan Potra, choreographer Corey Baker, writer Nick Walker, composer Peter Reynolds and circus director Paul Evans.  

 

Read On: Inspirations