Were You There ?
As part of IOU50, we’re creating the IOU Archive – bringing together the stories, memories and experiences of the people who have been part of IOU’s journey.
For 50 years, IOU has created unforgettable performances across Calderdale and beyond.
Were you in the audience? Did you volunteer? Help build a production? Perform with us?
As part of IOU50 we are creating a new archive which will preserve not only props, photographs, films and production materials, but also the voices of the people who experienced IOU’s work first-hand. To do this we’re collecting the stories, memories and experiences that shaped IOU over the last five decades.
We’d love to hear your story.
You don’t need to remember dates or have lots of detail – we’re interested in your experience, the moments that stayed with you and what IOU meant to you.
Share Your Memory Here
Leech!
An outdoor show which toured across the UK and internationally from 1998 to 2002. An interactive performance, featuring a 20m long, 3m high inflatable leech, was enjoyed by families and audiences of all ages, as the Leech ‘preyed’ on audience members brave enough to take part. Leech! was devised as a prologue to the indoor show, Cure, which launched in 1999.
The Storytelling Bus
Taking audiences on a journey to experience Halifax on a custom-built double-decker bus ( a reuse of the IOU Rear View Bus) whilst listening to original stories, reflections, and experiences of the town told by local people in their own voices. Set to a soundscape created by composer Katie English, audiences listened through headphones on a non-stop tour, often passing the places that appeared in the stories.
Electric Fields
An unusual and one-of-a-kind journey through Halifax - from Dean Clough to Beacon Hill - merging performance and reality. IOU’s base at Dean Clough became an eerie film studio where audiences saw a young couple embark on a quest, immersed in their journey they appear unconscious of the paraphernalia that surrounds them. The show ended with performers and audience transported to Beacon Hill, overlooking Halifax, for a fantastically normal finale.