: seek a reward. This stuff just happens
Happy
L streets
Ever been confronted in the street by a mime artist on stilts wearing a dreary orange wig? If so, it’s time to revisit your prejudices about street theatre, says the artistic director of Glasgow-based theatre company Mischief La-Bas.
t some point in the past l5 years we may well
have interfered with you. Perhaps you saw
(‘hristmas trees running down the street pursued by a crazed axeman. Perhaps the groundsmen at a major sporting event you were watching started a spontaneous disco routine and got chased off the pitch by large hotdogs. Maybe you noticed that a 45-foot flame-belching Space Rocket crashed overnight into Paddy‘s Market. or maybe you've had your shoes shined by the Elvis Cleaning Company. That's because my company Mischief l.a-Bas deals in street art. public art. ‘mucking about'. Mission statement: ‘to gently warp the underlay of the fabric of society‘. limphasis
on ‘gently‘. The opposite of terrorism. in fact. We seek
to inspire. uplift and bemuse — to flag up possibilities. And so do a whole bunch of other people. This kind of work can be far more powerful than
com/'entional theatre or art. where a . contract is struck with the audience when you buy a ticket or enter a venue. Even
buskers cut a deal. establish a convention.
when you are least expecting it — in public places. ‘They don't want money'." Nothing bewilders our society more than that. (Before you ask. festivals. councils. promoters etc usually pay for it tip front.)
As a punter confronted with an eight- foot Triflid outside the chip shop you have to make a
decision. ‘l)o I go along with this. do I throw a beer can. or do I just walk away‘." (Please don't throw the
beer can.) I reckon most people are delighted to have the opportunity to let loose their imagination and play along. To pop their own bubble for a minute. in fact. Like the jolt when you see a running shoplifter. you‘re suddenly in the moment: alive.
And it's the same for the performers. You must dismiss your obvious vulnerability and become invincible. You
. cannot fail. Your eo-star may tum out to be a dog pissing
up your leg. and they will demand equal billing. Deal with it. now. There will be no backstage banter (‘bit fidgety tonight. aren‘t they"): rather. the real possibility of being chased down the street with torches and pitchforks. If you want to know how easy it is to disrupt reality. but how hard to find the courage. just try walking very. very slowly down the street.
As well as intimate. interactive stuff. there's the big scale outdoor or site-specific stuff where the public are invited to attend. Here. the surprise is what can be achieved in an unstable environment with an impromptu crowd. Talk about inclusiveness in the arts. this IS the public at large. All of it. ASBOs notwithstanding. It is heartening that the National
' Theatre of Scotland. in seeking a resurrection of theatre.
realised the first step is to crawl out of little black boxes. They too. are coming out to play.
10 THE LIST 13—27 Apr 2006
YOUR CO- STAR MAY TURN OUT TO BE A DOG PISSING UP YOUR LEG
I remember watching a show by a French company. when something resembling a large pink rhinoceros came hurtling down a wire from the Finnieston ('rane. Somebody desperate for politics whined in my ear: ‘What's it all mean‘." and l was delighted to realise that it meant a large pink rhinoceros was hurtling down a wire from the Finnieston (‘rane. And that was fine. It reminded me that the streets actually belong to us. From then on. if I had an idea that was so ridiculous it shouldn‘t be happening. I would try my damnedest to make sure it did. Hence things like the one-off Space Rocket.
After watching imported large scale touring stuff for many years. in 200-1 it was about time we joined the game. Big in Falkirk gave us the kick in the pants. They invited us to put in a proposal for liuropean money through the lNSlTU promoters‘ network. and our ‘Painful (‘realures‘ project was chosen as one of three from liurope to get suppon. They liked the fact I was introducing painters and sculptors to the field. literally. SA(‘ joined in and we suddenly became international.
We premiered in Falkirk then hit the continent. Fantastic! Burning 30-foot Wickermen in the grounds of French hospitals. It would tickle me to hear Falkirk bandied about at international conferences in the same breath as Barcelona and Aurillac as a major centre of exciting new work. But actually. it is. The open-mindedness and enthusiasm of the Big in Falkirk organisers (and punters) has paid off. and for a small. rainy country Scotland is punching above its weight.
This year Mischief La-Bas will be premiering another daft experiment. ‘Montague Place'. a full-sized fake town square. which we intend to animate with cartoon choreography every l5 minutes. As our crew don't usually rehearse and are generally pretty unlit. that‘s quite a challenge. In fact. it‘s ridiculous. So let‘s do it.
Big in Falkirk, Sat 29-Sun 30 Apr.
PLUCKING FRUITS fROM THE CULTURAL BUSH
I It's been four long years. but DJ Shadow is getting ready to unveil his first album Since 2002's The Private Press. A sneak prewew of the new outwardly-looking“ material can be found on dishadowcom . . . If they can do it With Ray Charles and Johnny Cash. why not Michael Hutchence? Yes. a biopic of the dead Aussie Singer is in the pipeline and will be directed by Nick Egan, who shot some lNXS promos as well as videos for Kylie. Oasrs and Duran Duran . . . Hot wee Scot James McAvoy is set to loin the cast of Atonement. the movie adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel. Keira Knightley is also in it, but you can't have everything . . . Michael Jackson's sort-of rehabilitation is set to continue with news that Thriller: The Musical will hit the London West End this summer followed by a national tour later in the year. It's set in some place called Neverland and is probably a battle between good and evil. There are zombies in it . . . Good news for fans of Peep Show (we know you're out there somewhere) as those rather odd chaps Mitchell and Webb are coming out of their bunker, hoisting their weird ways in Glasgow King's direction this November . . . In a battle to see who's the scariest band of them all. Blur have announced that their first album in three years will be ‘aggressive' while Radlohead's Hail to the Thief follow-up will be ‘terrifying', according to their lead guy. But can anything be more genuinely blood-curdling than a new Darkness single? Almost certainly not. ‘Girlfriend' escapes from its coffin in May.