SIZE OF COMPANY
3–4 on the road

SCALE OF VENUE
Small

PERMANENT STAFF
Artistic Director
Leslie Hill
Artistic Director
Helen Paris
Producer (for Artsadmin)
Cheryl Pierce

ARTISTIC POLICY
Over the last twelve years, Curious has made nearly forty projects in a range of disciplines, including performance, installation, publication, and film. The company is driven by an intense curiosity about the world. The work is global and domestic: sometimes large, sometimes small in scale. Intimacy and a shared sense of encounter with an audience are always important elements. The work is frequently challenging, often humorous, and always authentic.

REVIEW EXTRACTS
The ordinariness of the domestic setting is transcended and transformed into something quite extraordinary. Well worth a sniff.
The Guardian (On the Scent)
A visual metaphor exposing levels, tiers, hierarchies and centres of control. Paris is spot on.
Total Theatre (Family Hold Back)
The quiet power of Leslie Hill and Helen Paris's performance lies in its low-key directness, its quirky juxtapositions and its understanding of the geography of loneliness and the myth of return.
The Guardian ((b)elonging)

CURRENT PRODUCTIONS
On the Scent
(40 minutes, 3 on stage, 4 on road)
A site-specific performance exploring the elusive connections between smell and memory, taking place in people’s homes. Audiences are invited on intimate and aromatic journeys as three distinctly different performers exude their own darkly humorous and seductive essences throughout the house.
Family Hold Back
(50 minutes, 1 on stage, 3 on road)
A highly visual, darkly comic and very well mannered performance airing the perversities of the politeness of the English dinner table. The performance features sharp knives, elegant necklines and a moment of discreet drowning.

FUTURE PRODUCTIONS
Gut Feelings (in development for autumn 2008)
An autobiological quest to expose truth and lies, biography and mythology from the inside. Through performance, film and medical intervention, Curious explore how we compile and edit the stories of our “selves”.

WRAP-AROUND
Workshops, residencies and professional development for artists and students that can range in length from one or two day retreats to weeklong workshops and sustained residencies.
New for 2009 is Autobiology - a one-week intensive programme looking at generating autobiographical material in direct relation to biology funded by the Wellcome Trust.

RECENT INTERNATIONAL WORK
2008 Finland: On the Scent
2008 Taiwan: Family Hold Back & Autobiology workshop
2007 Czech Republic: On the Scent
2007 Canada: (be)longing
2007 Austria: (be)longing
2006 Greece: On the Scent
2005 Australia: Smoking Gun, Family Hold Back, On the Scent
2005 China: On the Scent

TOURING AVAILABILITY
On the Scent – ongoing
Family Hold Back – ongoing
Gut Feelings – from autumn 2009