A different approach

by David Duffy, Production Assistant (Sustainability)

This year I've been working with Quirk Theatre on YETI, a new show for Exeter Phoenix. 

I'm spending a few months seeing how much we can source and supply with as light a footprint as possible. Can we build a set without buying new materials off the shelf? Can we borrow, can we repurpose?

It's a really interesting proposal, and a different approach. Timber is coming from the recycling centres across Exeter and East

Devon, from reclaimed wood organisations who process old timber from building sites. 

I've become a regular drop in at scrapstores from Exeter to Bristol, and have been scouring WhatsApp groups, Facebook Marketplace and eBay, determinedly hunting down second hand umbrellas, castors and tents. 

Sometimes you put energy into chasing a red herring, other days you strike gold. It's always worth putting out a shout, because inevitably someone out there is looking at moving on something that's been taking up room in their stores. 

Quirk run a scenic construction workshop hidden away in some woodland overlooking Exeter, where I stop off at all hours, dropping off wheelbarrows of old bed slats. Maybe the very bed slats that you got rid of at the tip, soon to reappear onstage. 

Are these bits of wood the ones that will change the world, are these environmental savings the ones that will turn back the clock on climate change?

Maybe not ... 

But a project like this starts to change minds, starts us thinking and acting differently. Encouraging each other to hold our nerve, wait before clicking and buying, and looking around at what's under our noses. We can tell our stories with the materials in front of us, and then find ways of handing them on to someone else.