What is the secret of room 616? It's the question raised in Bootworks' Little Box of Horrors, a clever little show that is an intimate, scary experience for an audience of one and simultaneously a spectacle for many. Anyone who has ever observed a show from backstage will know that it is often as entertaining to see how the illusion is constructed as it is to watch the illusion itself. Bootworks allows you to do both: watch it from outside the box, and it is rather comic; watch it from inside the box, and you feel as if you have fallen into Psycho. With more work and imagination, this short show could be a real stunner.
The Little Box of Horrors was just one of the shows in this year's Hat Fair, now in its 35th year. One of the great pleasures of street arts festivals is that they make you slow down and put the wonder back into everyday life. Wherever you were in Winchester on Saturday, you could hear the distant sound of laughter – as if the whole town was smiling.
Metro Boulot Dodo's Hansel and Gretel takes you away from the crowds and into secret places as you don headphones and go on a physical and audio journey into the heart of the fairytale, as the cast of characters tell you their side of the story. It's an ingenious idea.
Both Bootworks and Metro Boulot Dodo's will be touring this summer as part of the Without Walls consortium, which is presenting work from a new generation of street artists. The future looks spritely.
