JOYRIDE

A a large-scale, sensory, kinetic performance made for and with disabled young people and their peers.

JOYRIDE is a co-production between the award-winning Ockham’s Razor and Oily Cart, co- created with young disabled children and their families. It is a large-scale, sensory, kinetic performance made for and with disabled young people and their peers.

Designed for outdoor city spaces, this piece positions disabled young people at the front and centre of the vision as they explore new imagined worlds together. Through the show, the young audience members ride with their adult, sibling or friend in specially-made, fantastical vehicles, which are powered and animated by contemporary circus performers. The specially trained performers will tailor the experience to each audience member’s needs and preferences. The audience travel together through 3 installations which create the mini sensory worlds of the show.

We envisage this piece as a celebration of this community’s power and visibility. Between performances, the installations will be open in public space so that everyone is free to travel through and play within these alternative sensory realities.

Ockham’s Razor is a contemporary circus company who combine circus and visual theatre to make work that is arresting and entertaining. We specialise in creating physical theatre on original equipment and create stories from the vulnerability, trust and reliance that exists between physical performers. 

Rather than paint the circus performer as a superhuman character capable of impressive feats, they make work that draws on the human and the real, where the characters go through recognisable experiences, emotions and conflicts which the audience can relate to. Their shows are exciting and moving and they feel that they’ve achieved their aims when members of the audience have said : “I wanted to come on stage with you”. 

The Company was formed in 2004. We met while studying at Circomedia, Academy of Circus Arts and Physical Performance in Bristol. In spring 2006, Turtle Key Arts became their producers. 

Oily Cart imagines the impossible and rips up the rule book of theatre to make it more accessible. They create highly crafted, interactive, sensory shows that tour across the UK and internationally. Their performances integrate sounds, smells, touch, light and shadow, close-up choreography, live music and kinaesthetic movement (such as the audience floating in a hydrotherapy pool, or bouncing on a trampoline). They believe that children who have the most barriers to access have the right to experience world class theatre. Their sensory shows are close up, responsive and led by each young audience member. 

An Oily Cart show can take place on a stage, at home, online, on a trampoline, in your street, in the bath or even up in the air! They collaborate with the most exceptional artists to make work that can work for everyone. All their shows are made for and with disabled artists of all ages. 

 

‘There are great theatre companies, and there is Oily Cart… An Oily Cart show is like falling down a rabbit hole and finding yourself in Wonderland.’

Lyn Gardner, Theatre critic

‘There’s something magical about Ockham’s Razor.’

Evening Standard