Red Mole at Ilam

Press, 9 June 1978, Page 8

Red Mole at Ilam

Bv Howard McNaughton "Goin’ To Djibouti." devised and performed by the Red Mole Theatre Group. Ngaio Marsh Theatre, June 7-10. Running time: 2 hours 25 mins. Djibouti, explains the abortionist, has nothing: no natural resources, no agri- > ulture. just two soft drink factories — it’s just like here. So he packs up his gin bottles and knitting needles for a holiday there. Djibouti thus works as the only explicit metaphor for our gross national identity in this satirical show. Like most groupdeveloped theatre (which one presumed this to be), the Red .Mole show has few pretensions towards artistic structuring; episodes flow after each other with the most random linking. However, there is a cumulative feeling of purpose, and the satirical gestures finally do seem to cohere in an agit-prop manner into a general

assertion about the state of the nation. Each half of the show revolves round a central character, with most of the other actors providing a social context with a variety of caricatures. In the first half, we follow a girl being sacked from her factory job. meeting a fairy godfather type called Herb, encountering American sailors and an evangelist, going to a Labour Exchange. and going through the various other permutations of the Antipodean Every woman. In the second half, we strike the son of Jocasta, searching for his father in the wake of World War 11, and winding up to a sticky Oedipal fate. Judged from this programme. Red Mole lacks the socio-satirical impact of the early Amamus documentary work, and the aesthetic commitment of Theatre Action. The unnamed actors (about eight) show a wide diversity of stage competence, though the best are very impressive. On the credit side, there is an appealing circus atmosphere about their work, most of it is vigorous. unpretentious, and coolly banal, and the presentational elements of the show as a whole are very well thought-out; indeed. perhaps the most refreshing thing about the show is its lack of logic. Also, the continuing depressing lack of anv group theatre in the South Island makes the importation of North Island decadence compulsory theatre for all those who simply want variety in their theatre-going.