How BOSi started...

The Bureau Of Silly ideas was formed in 2003 by Roger ‘Gor’ Hartley and Claire ‘Kiwi’ Horan. They met in a lift at Heathrow Airport whilst travelling with their partners on the way to a wedding in Thailand... should have stayed! But the appeal of the grey skies and warm beers lured them back to London ready to start a new adventure...

After years of riding on life-sized fire-breathing horses, and after a couple of conversations with the Arts Council, BOSi was formed to embark on a new project to develop the concept of engaging people with their public space and urban environment through the use of street theatre.

“I became amazed at how an audience was more interested in developing a relationship with a lump of plastic (wheelie bin) then a grown man wearing pyjamas sitting on a fire-breathing horse, shooting fireworks at his mate.”

– Roger ‘Gor’ Hartley

The concept for BOSi started after Roger was invited to go to the Arts Council with 5 ideas for new projects that he wanted to do, and thought they might be interested in funding (he can’t remember them all now, but knows that one of them involved working with fish...)

The project that they took forwards to fund was for BOSi to investigate the relationship between road works, construction sites, circuses and funfairs – more specifically looking to develop a show that could be performed in the street which looked like road workers fixing a burst pipe. The parallels drawn between these elements came in the form of large machines, bright & colourful costumes, flashing lights and so on...