Fireworking includes a selection of stories, recollections and contributions from those who worked for and with The World Famous, and those who witnessed their shows.
Mandy Dike on beginnings:
The three founders of the company made a show in Leeds in 1998 for the Rhythms of the City Festival, working for Walk the Plank. We were billed as The World Famous Walk the Plank. So we said, “well, we can be The World Famous, and they can be Walk the Plank”. We drank a bottle of tequila and said, “Let’s start a company”. And that’s how The World Famous was born.
Flick Ferdinando on Blast!
The first time we did it, all the pyro started going off and we hadn’t rehearsed in that. So there was fuck loads of smoke everywhere. I have this lasting image of John surrounded by smoke, going, “Ah, ah” and me having to find him and grab him, and say, “Come on, the ladder’s here”. There was a bit of an emergency fire at the back as well. So quite a good introduction to The World Famous, really.
Mandy Dike on bonfires:
It touches something in people’s soul, it speaks to something that you can’t name.
Mystica on Full Circle:
Mike and Mandy came to Slovenia: they wanted to present this project to us, and brought these drawings and pictures. But we saw a lot of problems. At that time, the important thing for us was contact with the audience… and with each other. To have parts where we don’t see other, we thought it’s impossible.
Sophie Thomas on Church of Fire:
The day was filled with whiffs of gunpowder and the electrical charge of excitement and anticipation. We tried to visualize how our ideas would turn out: if we attached Roman candles to the spokes of an old umbrella and stood underneath it, would it look better from inside, or outside? Or would it just burn our trousers?
Julian Crouch on Sticky:
Sticky was a Chinese whisper of a show: each time it was performed, it changed and developed. I’m still a bit in love with it, and a bit scared of it.
Maria Hingarty on Crackers?:
The great swivelling audience all looking in different directions but all looking at the same thing, feeling like crying without knowing why, just that something had happened that moved something in them, touched their essence, tweaked a tear, a dance in their heart, adrenaline buzzed. Feeling alive. And hopefully, maybe, ready to take a risk.