When does memory become history, and when does history become heritage?

A 70 minute guided tour with slide show and video

When does memory become history, and when does history become heritage?

Guided Tour is a promenade performance sited in an historic building, in which the role of the tour guide is used as a conduit for counter histories, philosophical musings, personal revelations, and downright lies; a provocative undermining of the form. The history of the building is presented as an unstable narrative, prone to a variety of mediating influences which are carefully unpicked during the course of the performance. This is a tourist experience for the disenchanted, a quiet interrogation of the notion of the authentic and our thirst for the original. Guided Tour was premiered at McEwan Hall at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2005, in association with the Traverse Theatre. Supported by the British Council.

There’s so much history around,
so many books,
TV programs,
museums,
heritage sites,
There’s no space left for the present.
Or was it the other way round,
It’s all present, without any past?                 

 (Guided Tour, final chapter)

Critical Acclaim for Guided Tour

Pick of the Week The Guardian

"Divertingly smart " Financial Times

"Takes us down a fascinating road of cultural discovery" The List ****