Forkbeard Fantasy, founded in 1974, have been delighting audiences around the world with their eye-goggling comic shows, multiple film projections, grotesque characters, hilarious puppetry and wild mechanical sets for over thirty years.

As well as touring theatre shows, the company creates and tours elaborate interactive Exhibitions and Installations, Films and Animated Cartoons, run courses and workshops, and stages numerous special outdoor events.

One of the main trademarks of a Forkbeard Fantasy show is the interaction between film and live performance. It’s a technique they’ve been pioneering and perfecting since the mid-1970s. In its simplest form it’s the trick of merging from stage into screen and engaging in dialogue across what they call The Celluloid Divide. Forkbeard Fantasy have taken it to unhinged extremes over the years, projecting on anything from slowly inflating weather balloons to full-blown sails and mobile mechanized systems capable of travelling free-range both in or outdoors with the performers. Combined with Forkbeard Fantasy’s love of cartoon and animation the possibilities for film on stage remain endless. Forkbeard Fantasy work in both 16mm Cine and DV.

Chris and Tim Britton were the co-founders of Forkbeard in 1974 and have been writers, devisers and performers in every show. The were joined in 1980 by Penny Saunders, designer, maker and co-writer, who builds and engineers the sets, mechanisms props and costumes. Ed Jobling joined Forkbeard in 1987. He performs in nearly all the shows as well as operating sound and film projections.

Past Forkbeard Fantasy productions: 

Shooting Shakespeare(’04)   •  La Boite Blue (’03)   •  Fankenstein (’01-’02)   •  The Brain (’99-‘00)   •   The Barbers of Surreal (’98)   •  The Fall of the House of Usherettes (’95 & ’05)   •   The India Rubber Zoom Lens(’94)   •  Invasion of the Bloopies (’92)   •   A Series Leak (’90),   Work Ethics (’88)   •  A Waste of Time (’87)  •  Hypochondria (’87)   •  Myth (’86)   •   Plants, Vampires and Crazy Kings (’85)   •   Ghosts (’85)   •   The Cold Frame (’84)   •  The Brontosaurus Show (’83)   •   Springtime (’83)   •  Seal of the Walrus (’82)   •  The Clone Show (’80)   •  The Splitting Headache Show (’79)   •   On an Uncertain Insect (’78)   •  Men Only (’77)   •   The Government Warning Show (’76)   •  The Cranium Show (’76)   •   Single Grey Hair Solami Show with Ian Hinchcliffe (’76)  •  The Excretia Show (’75)   •   The Rubber God Show (’75)   •