Kate Bond is founder, director and producer of You Me Bum Bum Train, an extraordinary and revolutionary act of participatory performance theatre. Among its accolades are The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Award 2010 and the fact that it is the fastest-ever selling show at the Barbican.
Kate’s inspiration is the desire to create a deeply personal, magical experience for people as each audience member is taken on a sole journey through a series of scenes that create a hyper-real, miniature life experience. The one-off interactions that take place between audience members and performers is a totally unique, emotional encounter that liberates the imagination and explores a range of themes from the surreal, mundane and domestic to the political, humorous and moral.
YMBBT is an epic feat both creatively and physically. Recent productions involved 1000 volunteers, 200 actors and a team of set builders working continuously for three months.
The Evening Standard says of it, “A glorious example of a burgeoning theatrical movement intent on redefining our idea of what it means to be an audience…For 40 minutes we are not just passengers or even participants but heroes”.