Footsbarn is born in Cornwall, Great Britain.  The company created its shows in a barn on the Foot family’s farm calling themselves Foot’s Barn Theatre.  Quickly they became Footsbarn and the name has stayed with them ever since.

The company undertook its first European tour visiting England, Ireland, France, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Switzerland ….

Footsbarn left England to became a truly itinerant travelling theatre company.  They spent the next ten years on the road enjoying enormous success and enthusiastic audiences wherever they played.

In 1985 the company visited Australia for the first time going on to visit many more countries and continents, including : Czechoslovakia (1989), Russia (1989), Colombia (1992), Mexico (1994), Burkina Faso, West Africa (1998).  This period of travelling culminated in 1995 with the birth of a partnership in India to work on the project : ‘The Dream…. to tour India in a Tent’

the company bought a dilapidated farm house in the heart of the Bourbonnais.  They renovated the buildings and equipped them to provide a welcoming centre for artistic creation and training for Footsbarn and all the artists who work with them.

Footsbarn are still touring and their projects continue to grow. The company evolves with every project but always bubbling away at the heart of everything they do is the burning desire to bring dreams to life! 

After an enforced break because of the coronavirus pandemic, work commences on a new production, an adaptation of the Irish classic novel, The Crock of Gold.

Footsbarn celebrates its 50th year as a travelling theatre company, with a festival at its headquarters in France, and the premiere of The Crock of Gold.

After 50 years running Footsbarn together, founders Paddy and Freddy Hayter announce it is time to take a back seat and announce that British theatre composer Sadie Jemmett is to become its new artistic director.