A Dangerous Thing

A 'Proof of Concept' for A Dangerous Thing. Two digital 'sprite' figures formed of blocky pixels stand on a yellow floor in front of a black background. The left figure is wearing a long blue hooded coat and red shoes, the right figure is dressed in black and wearing a pink balaclava.

Part of The Truth to Power Project

A Dangerous Thing is a new, digitally animated work created in response to a world full of uncertainty.

We’ve worked with our long-time collaborator, visual artist Adam York Gregory, to continue our socially-engaged exploration of power, democracy, truth-telling, protest, privacy, conspiracy, and control.

A dangerous new work,
for dangerous new times.


Expanding on ideas explored in our recent, critically acclaimed theatre works (A Machine they’re Secretly Building and The Audit), A Dangerous Thing wants to punch its way out of the screen and into our homes.

It wants to shake us up, to wake us up, and to hunt down all those insidious lies, hiding in plain sight, and running ahead of us with their boots on.

Mashing and melding animation styles, original sound and composition, contemporary performance and story-telling, A Dangerous Thing is coming, and it cannot be stopped.


A test 'Sprite Sheet' for A Dangerous Thing. A digital 'sprite' figure formed of blocky pixels dressed in black and wearing a pink balaclava. The figure is repeated 30 times in different attitudes and poses.

A Dangerous Thing is currently screening via:

Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester [free via this link]

The Lowry, Salford [free via this link]

Previously screened by: Lancaster Arts at Lancaster University

“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”
Variously attributed to Alexander Pope (1709), ‘AB’ (1698), amongst others.

“Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have”
Lana Del Rey (2019)

“I did a dangerous thing for a man in my position: I decided to tell the truth”
Edward Snowden (2019)


Proto-type Theater with Adam York Gregory:
A DANGEROUS THING

Written by Andrew Westerside and Proto-type Theater
Performed and Devised by Rachel Baynton and Gillian Lees
Animated and Designed by Adam York Gregory
Original sound by Paul J. Rogers and Adam York Gregory

Produced by Gillian Lees
Marketing & Comms Rachel Baynton

Sound Engineer Steve Sharp
Production Assistants Curtis Clapham and Elisha Pearce


A Dangerous Thing is part of Proto-type Theater’s socially-engaged Truth to Power Project and has been made possible through the generosity of our commissioning partner The Lowry, through funding from the Arts Council England/DCMS Culture Recovery Fund, as well as through the continued support of ARC (Stockton), Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, Theatre-in-the-Mill (Bradford) & hAb/Word of Warning (Manchester). 

Arts Council England logo.

With thanks to the following organisations and funds who have supported and championed our work across The Truth to Power Project so far: AMATA (Falmouth), ARC (Stockton), artsdepot (North Finchley), Attenborough Arts Centre (Leicester), Axis Arts Centre (Crewe), BBC Lincolnshire, Bite Size Festival – China Plate, Cambridge Junction,
Carriageworks Theatre (Leeds), The Civic (Barnsley), The Crucible (Sheffield), CURVE (Leicester), Derby Theatre, EnableUs – University of Sheffield Drama Studio, Farnham Maltings, Futures for Women, Greenbelt Festival (Northampton), Harrogate Theatre, Lancaster Arts at Lancaster University, Lawrence Batley (Huddersfield), Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, The Lowry (Salford), mac (Birmingham), Northern Stage (Newcastle), Norwich Arts Centre, Nuffield Theatre (NST City, Southampton), Oxford Playhouse, Performing House (York St. John University), Pulse Festival – New Wolsey Theatre (Ipswich), Settle Stories Festival, Slung Low (Leeds), The Southbank Centre, The Spring Arts and Heritage Centre (Havant),  Summerhall – Edinburgh Festival Fringe, The Tron (Glasgow), Trestle Arts Base (St Albans), York Theatre Royal, Yorkshire Festival, Theatre-in-the-Mill (Bradford), hAb/Word of Warning (Manchester), Warwick Arts Centre, Tramway (Glasgow), BBC Lincolnshire, Mansions of the Future, The Britten-Pears Foundation, Arts Council England, and the British Council.

proto-type