The Ornithopter
New performance experience currently in development
An intimate walk-about performance allowing audiences to explore and interact with a complete and detailed world of quirky inventions and eccentric experiences.
Look Up! Look Up! To the Stars!
A pioneering step in human powered flight,
A visionary creation set to change the course of human history,
…or maybe it’s just a complete disaster.
You tell me.
The Ornithopter captures the fevered excitement of the 1950s space race. Follow one man as he races to set foot on the moon before anyone else.
A celebration of spectacular failure, based on the myth of Icarus, The Ornithopter creates a walk-through performance experience for audiences aged eight years and up.
A new theatrical experience created by award-winning theatre makers, Tortoise in a Nutshell, allows an audience to enter into a world of obsession, isolation and blind optimism and ask, what does it mean to dream big and reach for the impossible?
TESTIMONIALS - Viewers of development sessions
‘I really enjoyed the interactive part of the show,
when you got to go around the lab,
doing the different activities –
this is really fun for all ages.’
‘The humour was brilliant!’
‘I enjoyed the visceral feeling of being caught up in someone else’s dream
– feeling their ambition and also the tragedy of failure.’
Credits
Direction and Design: Alex Bird and Arran Howie
Sound Design: Jim Harbourne
Lighting Design: Simon Wilkinson
Stage Management: Judy Stewart
Original Credits: Co-Creators: Alex Bird, Arran Howie and Ross MacKay - Designer: Ben Whitney - Sound Designer: Jim Harbourne - Originally supported by The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo and the City of Edinburgh Council’s Culture Project Fund
Past Presentations
The Ornithopter is currently in development. It has had a number of research and development sessions including one at The Lichfield Garrick in 2017 which culminated in a private sharing of the piece with artistic peers. Further to this, a work-in-progress presentation was created with support from The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, the City of Edinburgh Council’s Culture Project Fund and Edinburgh’s Grid Iron. This phase of development culminated in eight public presentations of the piece at Edinburgh’s Summerhall as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival in 2018.
In April 2025, we presented a new work-in-progress sharing at Edinburgh International Science festival at Assembly Roxy’s Snug Bar. Across one day we ran fifteen performances in a loop for small audience groups who were invited to navigate a cardboard maze, following their own path.
Development will continue in 2026
