Our 2008 show ‘Caravan’ was inspired by the story of Rebecca Biddell. This is an account of her wedding day, from Frances Brown’s Strollers & Showfolk:

“On the 13th of December 1894 she walked up the aisle of St. Paul’s in old Brentford with John Francis Stroud, who made his living from coconut shies on the fairground. The bride, giving her occupation as ‘theatrical profession’ made such an impression in her red velvet dress and large red hat that locals still recalled the event over twenty years later.”

‘Caravan’ is a day at a country fair, at the turn of the last century. Days before rural networks had been broken down and dismantled. Days when the farmer, the gypsy, the showman, the horse dealer, the policeman, the general trader, the food vendor, the stall holder, country folk, town folk could meet bi-annually for the fair. The fair was a day of allowed transgression, a high day, a holiday, a day for meeting, talking, flirting, trading, gossiping. Most fairs have their roots in religious holidays and the agricultural year. Stow fair in the Cotswolds was originally an agricultural hiring fair. At the fair there are jugglers, itinerant musicians, some strolling players. Highlights from Shakespeare enacted in the mud and the din and the dust of the fair.

“There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.” William Shakespeare The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act IV, Scene V

Therefore Pansies became a big theme for Caravan. We made dozens of pansies by hand to hang in the tent.