SHOP WINDOW
Here's what happened when we first unleashed SHOP WINDOW on an unsuspecting public at Bristol's Galleries Shopping Centre in July 2021 and took it on to the streets the following year...
Our new show SHOP WINDOW show was inspired by the sight of abandoned shops in Britain’s High Streets, which set us pondering on the nation’s love-hate relationship with retail…
We took a bunch of shop-mannequins, replaced their heads with TVs and made a rock-and-roll show…The band plays tight grooves, flanked by the shop mannequins and Department Store potted palms, while our dancer and a mysterious 'Voice from Above' teach the audience how to dance their way to a better future. you'll be moved...literally.... and it’s fun!
So far we’ve been taking the show to empty High Street shops, getting unsuspecting shoppers to engage, move their bodies and eventually dance the conga round their shopping centre. This summer we are also bringing the show to festivals – we will set up our shop (mannequins, pot plants, cash register and all) in your tent, field or empty retail space and get your punters dancing, young or old - satisfaction guaranteed!
SHOP WINDOW playfully references the glory days of Department Stores, when shopping was glamorous and theatrical: an experience, not just a transaction. As people return to a high street hollowed out by Covid and online shopping, here is our vision of a town centre reclaimed for communities: where empty shops might become makers’ workshops, community hangouts, pop-up communal dining rooms; or a “shop window” for artists to showcase their work…
Times are strange, and the town centre feels quiet - every third shop is shuttered up.
But, wait a minute…
Is there a light flickering at the back of that dead retail space…?
Are those shutters opening?
And who are those strange boiler-suited mannequins – with electric guitars…?
Oh my God, they’re moving….!
