Core Characters

There are three characters in The Broad Cloth who are present in every exploration of this fictional island, played by performers/participants:
- a senior elder with an informal pastoral role
- the current Chief who is the primary caregiver of the third character...
- Kai Skylark, a young person who is about to come of age

Click here to read about how this works

There are three characters in The Broad Cloth who are present in every exploration of this fictional island. They provide us with a warp, if you will: the threads that stay lengthwise on a loom, through which we can weave threads of character and story over, and under, and around. The following is the only information about each one that must remain true. Anything else, including gender, age, personality, is decided by the people who play these roles. These three core characters can be performed in a variety of ways, depending on what works best for the island hosting the experience. Any or all of these can happen:
- The Copenhagen Interpretation can bring performers with us.
- We can work with local performers.
- Any participant can play any of these characters if they want to.

Senior Elder

One of the senior elders of the community holds an informal pastoral role and is generally regarded to have caregiving rights and responsibilities towards the community and its leadership. There's no official process for choosing this person - it tends to be obvious who it is. In fact, they tend to naturally take on this role themselves. The current holder of this position is most admired for the way they have cut their cloth during their life. Only one small piece of their cloth remains, and they wear it folded and pinned to their chest, awaiting the moment when the right use for it presents itself.

Current Chief

This is a more executive role, as the leader is the person who is ultimately entrusted with making decisions for the community. Click here for more about how they are chosen. Only two things about the current leader must remain true:

They are an active and engaged leader
They are the primary caregiver of Kai Skylark, whether related to them or not

Kai Skylark

Kai Skylark is about to come of age - whatever age that is agreed to be - and to receive the gift of cloth. They are in the care of the current Chief, so there could be some expectation that they might follow in the footsteps of leadership some day. Click here for information about creating your own character

Jump to...

~~ www.thebroadcloth.com ~~

The Broad Cloth on the Isle of Wight is a project led by The Copenhagen Interpretation in partnership with The Field Station hosted by Ventnor Exchange supported by Farnham Maltings. The Broad Cloth, and The Copenhagen Interpretation, and the contents of this website except where noted otherwise, are all Copyright (c) 2015-2023 by Jenifer Toksvig All Rights Reserved. Header photo of Ingøy Copyright (c) Oliver Dawe All Rights Reserved
"However, the Gods of Navigators will keep their collective and benevolent hands over us."