20 years! its blowing our tiny minds
Want a potted history ?

In 2006 we founded Gideon Reeling
Site responsive geniuses, Punchdrunk had commercial work coming in the door and needed a sister company to do it, 
...long story, that I’m still not sure about the politics of. but not everyone was happy it seems.
Kate Harrgreaves - an actor/ director making immersive education at the time as Education Officer at Gunnersbury Park , and recently aglow from her first Punchdrunk show Firebird Ball was tasked with incorporating this new venture.
Colin Nightingale, Producer/all round production wizard, trouble- shot, he knew how to open the bank account for starters
and Felix Barrett, Punchdrunk’s visionary Artistic Director was the lead.
 Felix borrowed a grand off his Dad to facilitate said bank account being opened.
The three served as Directors unitl 2009
The name was hatched in a pokey pub in London by Kate and Felix and Peter Higgin (Pete went on to set up the truly brilliant Punchdrunk Enrichment having moved to London and starting with a stint delivering character workshops for Kate at Gunnersbury Park Museum- the bread and butter and testing ground for many exceptional Education creatives)

So Gideon Reeling was founded to keep the Punchdrunk creatives in work between big shows.  Kate Hargreaves has always run the day to day- often blindly- learning on the job! Or not learning! (KH)

We parted company from Punchdrunk in 2009
But so many brilliant creatives still cross-pollinate between the two.  They and PD have our love. 
We are very proud of what we’ve done , but very proud too of where we come from:
We will always be Giddy and Reeling in our bones.

Its been a joyful company for 20 years and we are, frankly, staggered that we’ve managed to keep it going- often against wisdom or odds.
The creatives we work with are world leading talents in the fields of site responsive, interactive and immersive theatre
They are also the best, most loveliest people.

The image on this post is of an article written by Lyn Gardner - before the ink was even dry on the paperwork or the bank account was functioning! She wrote in response to our first show, (which was in IBIZA- honestly we thought we’d won the lottery)
- its fascinating to read the thoughts on the artistic and commercial partnerships emerging in theatre back then, particularly in this current time of uber commercial immersive everything where big IP and big money seem to rule.

We still make commercial work of course- there have been so many extraordinary, creative partnerships and collaborative exploits with brands and businesses over the years that have flexed our muscles and given us bonkers canvases around the world and introduced us to so many gems.
We do not bite the hand that feeds. We do discern. And we love to weave community and connection into everything: always striving to bring a sense of Eudaimonia (commonly translated to happiness and wellbeing) and humanity into the worlds we make.
Have a little shufti at the commercial  pages - see links to the right

But... its a small part of what we do. 
Mostly we pride ourselves on our originality and ability to tell stories and we’re never happier than when we’re doing that.

Our MO is, in a (big) nutshell:
Our commercial work allows us to fulfil our aim to bring free theatre to diverse audiences who may have had low engagement in the arts. 
We strongly believe in learning through play & strive to remain expert in delivering inclusive educational experiences to audiences of all ages.
Based in Hounslow and Stratford we endeavour to forge collaborative relationships with other arts and educational institutions. We work closely with staff and students at University of East London (since 2016) - Kate is now a Creative Industries fellow with them. We’ve made extensive work with National Trust properties since 2010: Education, Training, Performance and Space Design. We are also delighted to say we’ve worked since 2020 with the National Theatre development - creating their pre show shows.
 We’ve also created work as supported artists with our local theatre: Watermans: including Hounslow’s heartwarming Winter Lights Parade alongside parade company, Same Sky.

We’re known for meticulous research, attention to detail and intense enveloping productions with stories that are compelling, culturally relevant,  poignant, often transmedia, always uplifting.
At the heart of what GR do is a sense of inclusive playfulness and a sensitivity to the level that audiences are actually comfortable to be immersed into imaginary worlds, Its a fine balance.
We create from tiny to grand scale experiences.

We are still here, ta daaaaa.

Kate Hargreaves still leads the company as Exec & Artisitc Director, 
and Kathryn McGarr- a creative collaborator since our first show- is the Co Artistic Director.
Harriet Eldridge is Costume Supervisor of our costume collection- working with the staff and students of UEL
Laura Clark keeps the books
and Jacqueline McBeth has recently joined us to kick us up the proverbial to promote what we do.
Female led but the peerless Colin Nightingale is still involved in the background- producer/shareholder without portfolio if you will- we were incredibly proud to get to work with him on a meaty project last year- 7&7is49 for Beggars-  with his new company A Right/Left Project.  Check out the project in OUR SHOWS

Importantly…. we are hatching plans for 2026.
We hope you can come on this next part of our journey with us.
We’d love to keep you informed
Join our mailing via the contact form above
or we’d hugely appreciate if you give us a follow on Instagram
@gideonreelingtheatre
We will keep you posted, this time!
Thank you for your interest and support over these many years 
Love all ways, always