Artichoke (company)

It was founded in 2005 by Helen Marriage, former director of the Salisbury International Arts Festival, and Nicky Webb.

[1][2][3] Artichoke specialises in working in unusual places, such as streets, public spaces and the countryside, and are frequently on a large scale.

[1]The company produced French street theatre company Royal de Luxe'sThe Sultan's Elephant, the biggest piece of free theatre ever staged in London,[4] which attracted a million people over a four-day period in 2006, and the recent event in Liverpool featuring La Machine, a giant mechanical spider.

[5] Artichoke has received praise from the press for their productions: a review in The Observer wrote: "a two-woman company called Artichoke ... are one of the most vital of theatrical forces",[6] and Marriage and Webb transformed the Salisbury Festival from a local event into what The Times called "a miracle of modern British culture".

[10][12] In October 2007 Artichoke mounted a one-day conference, Larger Than Life, on all aspects of staging large-scale productions.