Trestle has been making innovative and inspirational physical storytelling theatre since 1981. Founded by students from Middlesex University Sally Cook, Alan Riley and Toby Wilsher with the help of their course tutor, John Wright. They were soon joined by Joff Chafer and the Company developed a distinctive style of theatre using masks, puppets and music, and soon became one of Britain’s leading touring theatre companies.  Find out more about Trestle's past touring productions.

In April 2002, after 20 years of nomadic existence, the Company moved into Trestle Arts Base, a £2,000,000 refurbishment of the 100-year-old Hill End Hospital Chapel in St Albans, Hertfordshire. As well as providing the Company with its first ever permanent home, Trestle Arts Base has gained its own reputation as a successful performing arts centre.

A new era began in 2004, when Toby Wilsher, the last remaining founding Artistic Director left the Company, and Emily Gray was appointed as the new Artistic Director. Today, Trestle Unmasked collaborates with UK and international artists to unify movement, music and text into a compelling theatrical experience.

Our productions tour nationally engaging a diverse range of audiences and reach out to as many people as possible with an unrivalled participatory programme. 

Little India (2007) was Trestle's first unmasked production and the first in a trilogy of internationally influenced storytelling theatre pieces. Working with Indian theatre company Little Jasmine, Trestle recreated a telling of a classic Indian love story for a contemporary audience. In 2008 Trestle worked with Barcelona-based dance company Increpación Danza to develop  Lola, which told the story of Lola Montez, the infamous 19th century fake Spanish dancer.

2009 saw Trestle use Eastern European physical and vocal techniques to tell the Polish fable of The Glass Mountain, and in 2010 began the first of two collaborations with emerging companies Moonfool and Blindeye. Moon Fool; ill met by moonlight was an inventive re-imagining of A Midsummer Night's Dream, combining original music and playful movement. Burn My Heart, based on the novel by award winning writer Beverley Naidoo, used African and European music and movement styles combined with a powerful mix of text, compelling storytelling and physical theatre, to tell a fast-paced, devastating, and highly relevant story.

This year sees us embark on two productions in partnership Unicorn Theatre, the first, The Birthday of the Infanta is based on Oscar Wilde’s bittersweet eponymous fairytale and the second is an Indian adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s magical Snow Queen, which will open at the Unicorn early 2012.  Trestle’s Autumn 2011 production, again in collaboration with Blindeye, is The Man with the Luggage, and takes it’s inspiration from Eugène Ionesco’s absurdist play of the same name.