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Company Profile
Joseph Kirby worked in London’s West End as a master carpenter until founding the world’s first ever company dedicated solely to the art of performer flying.
In 1898 he filed a patent for a drum and shaft based machine, and over the next 20 years went on to invent several other types of flying systems, all of which, though modified to take advantage of modern materials and manufacturing techniques, are still in use today.
When J.M. Barrie’s new play “Peter Pan” was launched in 1904, the already well established Kirby company were the natural choice to provide the flying effects.
To the audience of the day the flying was so realistic that the script had to be modified and a sprinkling of “fairy dust” was introduced in order to prevent children from launching themselves out of the nearest window. (H.R.H. Prince George had to be restrained from trying to fly out of the royal box at the Duke of York’s after seeing one of the earliest performances).
Joseph went on to provide effects for pantomimes, opera and ballet all over the UK and the USA, flying Maude Adams in the first ever American production of Peter Pan in 1905.
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George Kirby died in 1919 and his son Joseph who had worked closely with his father since 1908, took over the family business and expanded its operations worldwide.
In the early 1920’s he developed the somersault harness and improved upon George's quick release mechanism for attaching and releasing the harness from the wires.
Joseph presided over the heyday of the “Flying Ballet” where he directed and choreographed shows consisting entirely of aerial performance. A typical show would involve 5 or more artistes ( all girls) flying and somersaulting across the stage.
A further development was to fly two of the performers out over the auditorium, an effect so novel and stunning that each contract stipulated no flying ballet was to be performed within 17 miles of another.
Most flying sequences were still being done with pendulum systems but Joseph went on to develop tracking and then to combine the two, producing even more spectacular effects. From live stage performance he went on to work in film and after World War II, the fledgling television industry.
Joseph Kirby died in 1969 leaving the company to his daughter Nina ( named after the first Peter Pan Nina Boucicault ). Nina had grown up immersed in the business and had learned to rig, operate and even perform a wide repertoire of flying ballet. In 1971 her son Nick flew his first Peter Pan, Dorothy Tutin, at the London Coliseum.
Nick took over the running of Kirby’s in 1985 until his retirement in 2002 when the company was incorporated into AFX (UK) Ltd. under the direction of Andy Sutton.
Although our core business remains that of live flying effects for the theatre, we now offer a full range of equipment, expertise and personnel for all types of aerial performance work including rope and silk acts, bungee and trapeze.
Our technical and sales department offers a testing and certification service and a wide selection of sales items from rigging and lifting gear to climbing equipment and custom made specialist harnesses. |
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