City of the Unexpected
Dream and Nightmare Jars
"Most striking was the collection of dream jars created by local children to illustrate The BFG."
National Theatre Wales and Wales Millennium Centre
Directed by Nigel Jamieson
Designed by Dan Potra
As part of celebrations for the 100th birthday of Roald Dahl, I was asked to lead workshops for chidren, capturing their dreams and nightmares in jars, inspired by The BFG. Working from the initial brief by designer Dan Potra, I collected materials and made sample jars before holding workshops in libraries across Cardiff for children and their adults. In the week before the production I worked with students from Cardiff and Vale college to install the 3,000 jars into a site in Bute Park.
The jars were all made from recyclable type 1 PET plastic. I also visited car boot sales, recycling companies such as ReCreate and second hand internet sites to ensure that as many of the jar materials as possible had had a previous life before becoming a dream jar.
