ICARUS

ICARUS was an adventurous theatrical event, bursting with live music, devised and performed by FINE CHISEL and the people of Pocklington in Yorkshire. Commissioned by York Theatre Royal, ICARUS travelled from Pocklington across the region to Selby, Easingwold and Helmsley, gathering local performers in each of the four market towns as it played out across four weekends in Spring 2014.

ICARUS was a story about strapping on wings and taking flight. A story about what it means to be ambitious and a little bit reckless. It was inspired by the story of Thomas Pelling, the 'Flying Man' of Pocklington, and shaped by FINE CHISEL's Tom Spencer, Holly Beasley-Garrigan and George Williams and the wonderful community groups that joined the process: African drummers, volunteer electricians, a very special rocking-horse maker, vicars, teachers and a huge choir of singers (aged from 8 to 76).

The performance started in a church (dressed as a museum of flight by the residents of each town), paraded through the town centre as a samba band and culminated in a pub. Along the way there were flashmobs, candlelit laments, a hand-crafted pair of 25-foot wings, a live tawny owl and hundreds of local stories and flights of fancy.