This latest show from Daniel Bye, created with Sarah Punshon, sings for the unsung – those ordinary people who do extraordinary things but never win medals or get their pictures in the paper. It comes with its own extraordinary and heart-stopping moment in a chorus of exaltation courtesy of a score from Chumbawamba’s Boff Whalley.
Everything is understated about this lo-fi piece performed by Bye with Nadia Morgan, made using the stories of people from Devon and presented with an overhead projector that creates shadow images. We hear the stories of the woman who runs an equine centre that works with children with autism, the manager of a charity shop who helped an abused young woman take her first steps to independence, the man who took a stand during the foot and mouth epidemic of 2001.
None of these people has superpowers, they just get on with it. Like the couple from Croyde who rescued a group of canoeists from the sea and didn’t even get a thank you. Sometimes people try and fail.
The show quietly prods at what it means to be a hero and what it means to be part of society. It is both political and personal, putting us all on the spot in the gentlest possible way.
The performances are sometimes a mite too studied, and with its plethora of questions, rhetorical and otherwise, it can feel overly manufactured in tone. But it’s clearly heartfelt and demonstrates that there are everyday heroes all around us, and they quietly keep the world turning while government mouths on about the big society and implements more cuts.
• Touring to Swimbridge Jubilee Hall, Devon, 25 February; Atherington Playing Field and Pavilion, Devon, 26 February; Lee Memorial Hall, Devon, 27 February.
