Extraordinary reaction to a work of art

Organised by Development Lab, a company which aims to give theatre artists in Yorkshire a place to work on developing ideas, the Village Fete was a day-long festival of new theatre work.

Experimental musicians, spoken word poetry and cabaret acts were all part of the fun; as was a dance piece with a difference.

Lucy Hind and Dave Toole performed their short, improvised piece, Extra-Ordinary, to the audience – and the reaction was astonishing.

"We'd made it up in my front room a couple of days before," says Toole.

Hind adds: "We couldn't believe that people enjoyed it; we thought it was just us messing around on stage."

Not only did people enjoy it, for many it was a piece of theatre that still resonates and was so loved that the pair were invited to a dance festival in London to perform.

Now it has been expanded, re-written and is being restaged in England over the next fortnight and will then travel to take part in an international festival in South Africa in June.

In a former church hall in Armley, Leeds, Toole and Hind are rehearsing the new version of Extra-Ordinary. They show me a small piece of the expanded version.

Having seen the first performance of the show and now a rehearsal of the new show, I can confirm that the special something that made the show so popular with audiences the first time round has been kept intact with the new piece.

"We didn't want to lose that improvised and personal feel that the audience seemed to connect with," says Hind.

"We brought in a writer to work on the show and we do have a script, but we have been given licence to play with it and see where it goes."

In the show, Toole and Hind play David and Lucy – essentially caricatures of themselves.

Hind's background is that she left South Africa and a promising career in dance and physical theatre to

come to England with her parents.

Toole was a post office worker before he joined disabled dance theatre company Candoco, after studying dance at the world-famous London dance conservatoire Laban.

In a thrilling moment during the piece, they tear into each other on stage, Toole telling Hind that she is an "average dancer, average looking, a little overweight" and she retorts by criticising the fact that he is a famous dancer "without legs".

"Because we have known each other a long time, we were able to do that, but it was a part of the show

that people seemed to really love and be shocked by,"

says Hind.

"I think it was because we were so utterly honest and ourselves on stage that people found it moving."

Extra-Ordinary is at Theatre in the Mill, Bradford, April 19 and 20, and at Hull Truck Theatre, May 5.