Sheila Hill

Sheila Hill is a writer/theatre-maker and installation-artist. Always using real voices in her work, she records interviews with people, then transcribing and editing what they say down to a poetic core. 

She has had secondary careers as a music curator and journalist.

In 2010, she founded Tabernacle Folk , a pioneering London festival exploring and stretching the limits of traditional music.  She continues to produce special one-off projects.

As a journalist she was a Guardian columnist, and still writes occasional features.

Him

Duration: 60 mins

Description: I've got a little checklist. I call it KFC. But mine's KFFC. Keys. Freedom Pass. Phone. Credit cards. And if I've got these, I'm ok. But this morning I forgot the phone....

A new performance work, lying somewhere between theatre and visual art, in which actor Tim Barlow reflects humorously on being 80.

Sheila has used conversations with Tim, from a 20 year friendship, to construct the story he tells us about his life, memory, and the art of theatre.

Juxtaposing this testimony are six short films by photographer/videographer Hugo Glendinning, and live music composed and performed by bassist Sebastiano Dessanay.

Extra information: Post-performance Q and A with the actor and director available to complement.

People on road: Five (performer; director; musician; technical manager; Palantypist)

Freight: necessary

Freight details: Transportation of projection screen (3m x 2m) + projector

The Question Room

Duration: 30 mins (looped)

Description: An art installation celebrating the humour of a young child's questions, but avoiding the constraints and irritations of answering.

People on road: Two (lead artist + technician)

Freight: necessary

Freight details: Two projector screens; two projectors; a laptop; floor cushions - if the venue cannot provide any of these.

Post show talks; Q and A’s; workshops

The Question Room: 

“A beautifully crafted contemplative space which completely alters one’s state of mind and allows time between thoughts and has wonderfully puzzling questions. Tranquil and restful, yet thought provoking and invigorating – and something we were all very proud of at the Museum,”  Anthony Richards, then Head of Gallery Programmes, Science Museum.

Him:

“The first time I had the pleasure to see Tim Barlow perform was at the Edinburgh Festival in the late 1980’s. I caught the first part of his acclaimed one-man show ‘My Army’ that he devised with Theatre De Complicite. It was an outstanding piece of personal storytelling that captured the audience’s imagination. Warm and funny, we were drawn into Tim’s world as he traversed a series of anecdotes about his life in the army and the onset of his deafness.

He developed three shows between 1991 and 2007 to tell the full story including his life as an actor. ‘My Army One’ was so powerful it has stayed with me ever since…so when I heard that Tim was collaborating with Sheila Hill to create a new piece of work for Unlimited I was extremely excited knowing we would be in for something extraordinary.” Liz Porter, Disability Arts Online.