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People Show started in 1966 when John Darling, Mark Long, Jeff Nuttall and Sid Palmer performed a piece entitled People Show in the basement of Better Books in Charing Cross Road. The group assumed the name for themselves, and Britain’s first experimental theatre company was born.
The work was tightly scripted with room for improvisation, visually shot through with bizarre imagery, and with prominent use of sound tapes. The space was of paramount importance to the creation of the show; the show came from the space.
After the first year, abandoning scripts, the group started to improvise shows – image-based, visually structured shows – establishing a riskier, more dangerous relationship between performers and audience, and each other.
In 1970 the People Show was invited by William Gaskill at the Royal Court to take part in ‘Come Together’, a festival of the most interesting, avant-garde companies around at the time.
By 1980 the People Show had developed a depth of talent in the creation of shows; most importantly, a knowledge of the communication of the performers’ self in relationship to their art. There was also a love of visual spectacle, music, sound and light.
It was People Show Cabaret in 1980 that put the company on the map; Mark Long, Chahine Yavroyan, George Khan and Emil Wolk toured it to over 50 venues around the world, and it was hugely successful.
The company’s first major award was the London Carling Fringe Festival Best Design Prize in 1998-9, followed by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award in 2005.
In recent years the company has continued to conceive, produce and perform shows without external writers or directors. The company is headed up by a group of seven artists: Gareth Brierley, Sadie Cook, Fiona Creese, George Khan, Mark Long, Jessica Worrall and Chahine Yavroyan who work closely with other People Show artists to create each show.
All People Show productions are sometimes created from scratch, starting only with the skills, personalities and ideas of a particular group at the beginning of a devising period. At other times an artist may have a specific idea they wish to develop prior to the main devising period: they may either be commissioned to conduct their research or to work with another artist/s to experiment with material.
People Show,
People Show Studios,
Pollard Row, London E2 6NB
people@peopleshow.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/pages/People-Show/59538011964
Here are few videos reflect some of their work.