The way we work

Quarantine has created a series of shows excavating the lives of real people and we’ve never seen one of these fragile, beautiful performances that wasn’t an outright winner.
Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, May 2006

Quarantine makes theatre. We question accepted conventions of theatrical performance, and ignore boundaries between artforms. Our work takes many forms, from sound-based projects and installations to more conventional performances on stage. We borrow and steal from visual art, live art, music and dance – and from real-life events, journeys, conversations, films, cooking, books and arguments.

We describe what we do as “theatre” because we feel that the term doesn’t limit or define us. Theatre constantly changes shape. It describes the live, creative and two-way engagement between performer and audience.

The basis of what we do is found in the personal histories, experiences and beliefs of our performers rather than in fictional characters. We use the actual and the imagined, the heightened and the everyday, side by side.

We tend to work with fragmented, multiple narratives. So, rather than trying to tell a single story, we might present a chaos of stories. Visual signs, spatial relationships, the spoken word, sound, music, light and choreography are all equally important in relaying those multiple stories.

Who we work with

Quarantine’s work is created with and presented by people with very different experiences of the world. We’re as interested in collaborating with experienced performers and artists as we are with people who have not been involved in theatre before.

Because of this, each project begins with the people in the room, their personal experiences, possibilities, and limitations. We are as curious about who people are as about what they can do. Performers in Quarantine’s work are not interpreters, but individuals with their own story to tell.

Quarantine's defining interest in closing the gap between performer and material has given it an impressive reputation for theatre that radically dismantles the conventions by which we normally experience it.
Claire Allfree, The Independent, September 2004

Audiences

We aim to make work that allows audiences to discover something about themselves. We often purposely blur the distinctions between performer and audiences, and create environments that allow an interaction between people that is at once intimate and invisible, public and celebratory.

And we are particularly interested in what happens next. What happens beyond that point where an audience connects with a performer or performance? What happens inside the performance venue – and what happens afterwards, when everyone has gone home?

This website is a means of inviting thoughts and comments from our audiences and sharing ideas about past and future projects.

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