Big Wheel is a theatre company that caters for all kinds of events. Whether you need something a bit different for a conference or a classroom, we are the people to talk to!
Big Wheel is made up of a core team of four with a pool of freelance Big Wheelers whom we use on a regular basis. We are based on Exmouth Market in Clerkenwell and our work is incredibly varied!
We started in 1984 as a group of students from Oxford University doing fairly serious fringe theatre. We then moved into the realm of school workshops and started to develop the excellent shows we produce today!
During the 1980’s we broadened our horizons and started to take our school shows to Europe. We regularly tour the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Austria and parts of Germany.
We continue to develop our UK work touring in and around the London area and across the country as far as Aberdeen!
Since 2002 we have worked increasingly for the National Health Service and related organisations, providing staff training and tailor-made presentations at conferences.
For more information about Big Wheel and how the company was started please click here (especially useful if you are doing a project about theatre in education companies!)
Voulez-Vous?!
This show is entirely interactive from the moment two French actors turn up at the school reception unable to speak anything but French.
The show is modelled on a TV holiday programme, including a hilarious game-show: a competition to win a family holiday. The show is interspersed with travel surveys, ad breaks, time checks, catchphrases, and a weather forecast.
Versions of Voulez-Vous?! have been frequently presented with great success for all key stages and for Special Needs schools:
For EYFS/KS1, the show is mainly a ‘geography lesson’, where parts of the audience become different regions of France.
For KS2 there’s also a quiz, and for KS3 and 4 the session becomes more of a culture show: café life, fashion, Paris monuments, and the French Revolution.
Levels of fluency within the same Key Stage vary hugely from school to school. The actors are brilliant at adapting to the level of each group, both encouraging and stretching language use. Teachers and pupils are often amazed at how every group manages to enjoy themselves entirely in French for more than an hour!
