Sheffield-based theatre company Third Angel is still going strong after 25 years

It’s our sheer variety, you see. We have Opera North and Northern Ballet, we have Sheffield Crucible and Leeds Grand Theatre and we have the likes of the small, but beautifully formed, Third Angel.

I must have declared this a dozen times over the past year, but Third Angel really is one of my favourite companies from Yorkshire. Watching the company perform is like a gentle hug from an old friend. The fact that the stories and performances stay with you for some time after curtain down is testament to the depth of the work it produces.

“I think what defines us as a company is both the work itself and the values we hold. We make new contemporary performance that is always responsive to the world around us. We want to comment on the things we see and we want to invite our audience to question the status quo,” says Rachael Walton, co-artistic director and CEO of the company.

“We want people to never stop looking and asking questions about the world that surrounds them. This can be questioning things on a political level, but also on a ‘smaller, everyday things and people, taken for granted’, level. We work in lots of different formats and places, and I think that makes us stand out as a company.

"You never know where you are going to find us next or the type of work we might be doing: one month we might be touring with a minibus to village halls and the next working with 60 Sheffield teenagers on a show that illustrates what they think about the world. We might be touring a theatre show one minute and devising an interactive experience for people to do at home the next.”

While it sounds like Third Angel is almost beyond definition, they are a company that always make you feel something. I still have fond memories of all the shows of theirs that I’ve seen.

It’s a joy to be including them in this series in the company’s 25th anniversary year.

“We are a small company with a big heart. We’re family and how we treat one another is key,” says Walton, who founded the company along with Alexander Kelly.

During the 25 years the company has created, from its Sheffield base, over 50 shows and projects with the community both in the UK and internationally.

“Ideas have always driven the company. Back in 1995 we wanted to make a show, something full of ambition, something we’d never seen before, something that was more than a theatre show and would reach a lot of people. The result was our first production Testcard: a 72 hour piece in the foyer of the Workstation in Sheffield, but with film work showing on TVs in shops and supermarkets.

“Remember, this was the year the internet properly arrived, so streaming didn’t exit and broadcast was unimaginable for a company our size. We literally had people on bikes couriering video tapes around the city. We loved creating the show and wanted to continue collaborating, and thus Third Angel was born.”

It went on to create work that was memorable because of what it set out to do. In the words of Walton ‘we’ve always tried to reinvent what we think theatre is and can be’.

A bold ambition, but one to which the company has adhered and has led to shows like Inherited Cities, made with 60 Sheffield teenagers and which brought together the two strands of the company’s work: productions and work in communities and with young people.

“Where from Here, Presumption and What I Heard about the World were all great shows for us. They allowed the company to tour the world and meet people from all walks of life,” says Walton.

“In The Desire Paths we draw a huge map on the ground and invite the public to rename the streets after their hope and inspirations. I really hope in the coming months when we are out of lockdown, we can get to do this piece again. It really feels like the right piece to bring communities together.”

Something I’ve asked every company and theatre I’ve written about during this series – how will theatre change following the pandemic?

A theme has emerged – everyone hopes that the lessons of the past year can be taken forward into the future. “I hope we really do take some learning from the pandemic. I hope the playing field is more equitable and opportunities are more open,” says Walton.

“I hope we find a new way of sharing our work that’s both economically and environmentally sustainable. I hope we support all the amazing freelancers in the industry that literally keep the thing going.

"I hope we continue to attempt to reach different audiences in different ways. I hope we realise more people in a theatre paying less, rather than a few paying more, is a greater celebration of the amazing creativity we have in this country and I hope what we see on stage is more representative of the world we see around us.”

It’s the kind of rallying call you get from Third Angel, a company we can be proud to call one of our own.

New work – the distraction agents

Third Angel makes work that encompasses performance, theatre, live art, installation, film, video art, documentary, photography and design. Currently the company is working on a new project called The Distraction Agents.

“It’s a brand new project and we have explored a different way of working,” says co-artistic director and CEO Rachael Walton. “We’re describing it as a ‘performance puzzle’. it will be really good fun and to get involved, and will be able to book very soon.”

For details on the project and Third Angel, visit the company’s website www.thirdangel.co.uk