1986: Tales From a Maskshop
We were looking forward to touring a new show, and had organised a tour starting in Lancashire, moving to the Yorkshire Dales and then an extended tour of Galloway. The Dumfries and Galloway leg was once again supported by Jenny Wilson, who was now the Director of Dumfries & Galloway Arts, having moved there from her post in Fife.
I had been reading Kenneth Patchen’s ‘The Journal of Albion Moonlight’, a disturbing work that I felt was a book of genius; a twisted and allegorical quest into madness inspired by the pre-Shakespearian lyric ‘Tom O’Bedlam’. I wanted to see if we could turn it into a theatre production. It became Tales From a Maskshop.
We tried two innovations. The first (for us) was using a live narrator, with Melissa Wyer, her face veiled, narrating sections of Patchen’s narrative. Because the source was a literary one I wasn’t happy to entirely lose Patchen’s words. This worked well, providing a thread of sorts that otherwise might have been difficult to follow. Melissa though felt uncertain of herself in doing this and my lack of experience in directing voice probably didn’t help her much. The other was ending the piece by the cast walking off the stage as if their journey was continuing. This caused several problems, with audiences not at all sure that show was over. In the end the idea was abandoned, even though it was in keeping with the nihilistic nature of Patchen’s story/
BOB FRITH, MELISSA WYER, KAY KENNEDY, PAUL KERSHAW, MOIRA HIRST (h), ANNE BARBER, DAVE KING (m), STEPH BUNN, MARY PLUMB, SALLY MARTIN (admin)
1987/8: The Wheel, or An Roth
In 1987 we had been asked by Údarás, the Gaelic agency for the Gaeltacht, to devise a tour for the West of Ireland. Údarás had heard about our tour of the Outer Islands of Scotland, and suggested something similar. The resulting show was An Roth, or The Wheel. It was based on a radio-play I had stumbled across years’ before, missing the beginning. It was a dark story involving two men who meet a stranger. He promises a handsome reward if they deliver a wheel to another village. They start off, pushing the wheel by hand and thinking it’s going to be easy money. They have various encounters on the way. Its only when they’re getting close to their destination, after increasingly strange confrontations, that the truth dawns on them – that the wheel is going to be used to break the body of a prisoner. It reminded me of the wheels on skeletal poles in the background of Brueghel’s painting ‘The Triumph of Death’.
We still have the tour diary for 1987 – it’s a reminder of how complicated touring abroad was in pre-EU days. It involved carnets, with an attached list of 250 numbered items that had to be described in full (‘one detachable tin puppet nose’) and then sealed to await customs inspection. In Dublin we were nearly sent back home because there were a few strands of loose hay on the floor of the horse box. These joys once again await post-Brexit.
The Island – Inis Bofin
The tour of 1987 included a short residency on the island of Inis Bofin in early September. The weather had broken and the crossing was delayed by storms, though we finally sailed on Paddy’s mailboat, ‘The Glorious’, on the 5th September despite warnings from some of the locals that it was too dangerous (the diary quotes overhearing one saying it was a ‘suicide mission’). I let the team make their own decisions, and Tim Petter chose to remain behind on the mainland that evening. This was possible since we weren’t performing the show, but were putting together a parade and a fire sculpture in the harbour. The mailboat was (over-) loaded and crammed with goods, and we had to hunker down under tarpaulins to protect us from the high seas. It was indeed a heart-in-mouth crossing, especially as the boat had been out once earlier in the day but turned back because of engine trouble. Gannets skimmed across the rough waves and most of us were soaked through. One young boy, the diary tells us, was sick over Tim Bender’s trousers. However the weather rapidly improved, the next day was glorious, and with Tim Petter back the group reunited. In 1988 we revived An Roth, now with its English title The Wheel, for a UK tour.
I 1988 the show was revived for a tour of North East England (including 2 nights on Holy Island), Dumfries & Galloway and the Scottish Borders.
The relevance of one scene to another, and the interpretation of each scene is left to the audience so this is not a play for the literal-minded. But to the uncluttered imagination of children it presents no problem.
It was like a dream, with its fleeting images alternately nightmarish and serene and always inconsequential, born of experiences on the west coast of Ireland…The musicians, performers, lighting technicians and other members of this amazing company have provided us with an unforgettable theatrical experience.
Richard Kelly, The Guardian, 12 July 1988.
AN ROTH: BOB FRITH (wr/dir), TIM BENDER, TIM PETTER (m), DAVE KING (m), STEPH BUNN, JILL SWALES, ELE WOOD (h), ANNE BARBER, MARY PLUMB (m), KAY KENNEDY, THERESA WILDING, BRETT HORNBY (m), LIZ MATHER.
THE WHEEL: AS ABOVE but also with the addition of SARAH FRANGLETON and MOIRA HIRST, without STEPH BUNN, JILL SWALES, KAY KENNEDY, THERESA WILDING.
1989: The Plaited Path
The Plaited Path in 1989 was my version of ‘Rapunzel’, and it turned out to be very popular with audiences. I worked on the show as a kind of Master of Ceremonies, which enabled me to direct the show from out front. The stage backdrop was divided into three areas – in the centre was the tower of the Witches Castle. Stage left there was a space representing Rapunzel’s cell. A balancing space stage right I shared with the musicians, Mary Plumb and Lisa Otter-Barry. In most of our previous shows I had been a performer, so we would have to bring in someone to direct the final stages of rehearsals. I was becoming increasingly concerned about this, feeling that despite everyones’ best efforts the shows didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted. Sometimes I worked with the musicians, cueing and playing percussion, but I still couldn’t ‘see’ the show properly from that position. The Plaited Path definitely benefited from me having an outside eye on the production. The show was given big boost by Anne Barber playing the Rapunzel role with real panache, Adam Strickson made a hilarious Witch, and Tim Bender her bumbling son. These last two were based on characters who waited on me at a bizarre restaurant in Toledo, Extremadura. Shortly afterwards I decided to stop performing altogether and concentrate fully on the writing, making and directing.
PLAITED PATH: BOB FRITH (wr/dir), ELE WOOD (h), ANNE BARBER, TIM BENDER, TIM PETTER (m), ADAM STRICKSON, DAVE KING (m), MARY PLUMB (m), JO KING, LISA OTTER-BARRY, SARAH FRANGLETON
