The Desire Paths

Think of the names of its streets and paths.

What if those street names didn’t commemorate the past but instead spoke of our hopes for the future?

If we could rename those familiar streets, what would we call them?

Would they be optimistic? Or a bit more down to earth?”

This is the provocation that sits at the heart of The Desire Paths, a highly participatory public realm performance free to all; it explores the concept that our surroundings have a direct and intangible effect on our minds and therefore the way we live, work and play together, something which is particularly relevant in our multicultural community.

The Desire Paths is delivered by Third Angel – a theatre company creating public artwork in public spaces, and has been successfully run in Sheffield, Newcastle & Slough.
Bedford Players Trust & The Place Bedford brought this pop-up art/storytelling installation to Bedford between Friday 3rd – Sunday 5th September 2021, reaching weekday and weekend visitors in the last weekend before the end of the summer holidays. Balmy summer afternoons and some beautiful weather added to the fun, informal and friendly atmosphere in Harpur Square.
This free-to-experience, activity, engaged a high level of passing interest, with nearly 200 groups of people stoppoing over the 3 days to help rename the streets of the town with their Hopes & Dreams for the future.

We were delighted to welcome a team of 7 dedicated performers, some from Third Angel’s performance team at other locations, and 3 from the Bedford community.
Alongside them our volunteer team from The Place Bedford helped reach new local audiences for our work.

We put the map on Bedford!

Finally, a huge thank you to our funders and partners who helped make this fantastic event happen (many of whom came along over the event to help us talk to the public and promoted the activity even wider)