The Weather Factory

Fevered Sleep_The Weather Factory_Penygroes_2010_JorgeLizalde5.jpg

2010

As part of National Theatre Wales’ inaugural season, The Weather Factory created a series of installations and experiences in a house in Penygroes, a small village on the edge of the mountains

 
 
a woman looks at a small glass of red liquid in a room of old TV sets

The Weather Factory Penygroes 2010 photo by Jorge Lizalde

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Weather Factory was commissioned by National Theatre Wales as part of its inaugural season in which it created a “theatre map” of Wales. Exploring the weather in Snowdonia, The Weather Factory created a series of installations and experiences in a house in Penygroes, a small village on the edge of the mountains.

Audiences – in groups of between 1 and 6 people – collected the front door key to the house from the pub in the village, and let themselves in for a forty minute experience, which started with a glass of sherry and a mince pie, and took them on a journey not only through a house full of references to the weather – barometers, archives of photos of Snowdon at all times of year, televisions showing a collection of shifting skies – but also through the landscapes of the region; through rooms full of wind, rain, water, moss and mist.

The Weather Factory was inspired by a year’s worth of research trips to Snowdonia, during which we met and spoke with many people about the weather in north Wales.

The project played with ideas that “the weather” is not only a natural phenomenon – an effect of the relationships between the sea, the sun and the landscape – but also a human drama, a way for us to talk about ourselves and the places in which we live.

 
two people in a misty room touch a glowing orb

The Weather Factory Penygroes 2010 photo by Jorge Lizalde

 
 

Imagination is stimulated, curiosity aroused… an atmospheric pleasure.

The observer

 
 
a woman touches a wall made of moss

The Weather Factory Penygroes 2010 photo by Jorge Lizalde

 

Meet the team

Creative direction, design & text: David Harradine 
Interior design & lighting: Jo Manser
Design: Ali Beale
Dramaturgy: Sam Butler
Film: Charles Webber 
Production Assistant: Sam Evans 
Sound: Jony Easterby 

 

Commissioned and produced by

National Theatre Wales

 

Produced in association with

Fuel