Developed through protest poetry with the Right to Roam Campaign, Fieldfare is a poetic theatre piece for one performer, creating a permeable membrane between person and place. A multimedia one-person show nodding to folk-horror and performance art, it blends dramatic narrative, live music, archive footage and field recordings to explore the queer histories of rural Britain and confront cultural paranoia around queerness as rewilding.
Ollie is a gamekeeper’s son. When his dad catches a strange, bark-clad figure in a trap, something awakens that transforms Ollie’s landscape completely. The piece follows a turning year, each season marked by immersive sound design blending field recordings – birdsong, water, wind, breath – with instruments and live sound. Drawing on the iconic Green Man myth, Fieldfare gathers audiences round the campfire to retell it through a queer lens, where folklore is a living commons and old stories help navigate questions of ecology, identity, and belonging today.
Tobi King Bakare and this theatre deserve a shout-out for such a young, diverse audience. There is so much talk about audiences being full of over 60s and why, why can’t theatres get the crowds in to reflect society in general? Well, I’m happy to say that on a rainy Thursday evening, the theatre was completely full.
Caiti Grove on Before I Go in CPT's Spring 2023 season London Theatre Reviews
