Ready Steady Colour comes to Rochdale

Ready Steady Colour comes to Rochdale

4 More Image(s) In Gallery

Ready Steady Colour is an interactive concoction of theatre, music and art, aiming to unleash creativity within Rochdale’s children in a make-believe restaurant.

The event consists of a partnership between A Line Art and Oxford Playhouse, created by Anna Bruder and performed by Arji Manuelpillai and Robin Hemmings.

Children who took part were able to order their ‘food’ in a pop-up restaurant and colour it in with the available art supplies, such as red paint ketchup, yellow paint mustard, blue ‘cheese’ paint, glue mayonnaise and glittery salt and pepper. As they did so, they were entertained by comedy, music and storytelling from their ‘waiting staff’.

With Anna being a contemporary pop artist, the project is an inventive pairing of colours and rhythms with Arji and Robin’s musical comedy, for children of all ages.

Anna, who works at A Line Art and acts as ‘head chef’ in the project, said: “We came up with the project idea and began developing it for two years in Oxford and then went on to rehearse it for 2 weeks.

“Our first shows in London started off slowly, and then when we were featured in Time Out, we sold out massively in all of our shows. We’ve also done shows in Hull so far where around 150 people attended, and are due to be in Huddersfield next week before heading back down to Oxford after that.

“All of the shop artwork is designed by myself and bespoke for each shop, depending on the space we’re given. Toby Hulse, our director, has been brilliant with us and has helped us achieve from the start.

“All of the money goes towards Oxford Playhouse, but unfortunately what we get sometimes doesn’t cover the cost on how much we spend. But it is worth it to get children involved with a unique activity like this.”