‘Theatre magic’ made with sounds and images

Press, 18 May 1988, Page 22

‘Theatre magic’ made with sounds and images

By

KAY FORRESTER

Picture a group of people sitting in a muslin room, absorbing the sounds and images thrown at them. That is the theatre experience John Hudson has devised in his production, “Glimpse.”

Hudson wants those attending “Glimpse” in Christchurch later this month to feel the magic of theatre. To create that sense of wonder he will use a “muslin room,” a “muslin womb,” to enclose them.

To get to the room the audience will go through a tunnel. Once the audience is in the room the tunnel will be removed. Hudson says that will leave the audience disoriented, but feeling safe and with a sense of wonder about what will happen next. What does happen is the arrival of a collection of visual and musical impressions. Slides, videos, song and sound are presented to tell a story about time and the New Zealand landscape. The enclosed muslin space allows the creators of the songs, music and sound to be hidden.

Hudson has produced the theatre experience before but the Christchurch season will feature a new version.

Having decided to stage “Glimpse,” Hudson, who now lives in Christchurch, asked Felicity Williams to create original music for the production. Williams has used 16 singers, eight musicians and synthesisers to create the live music. Hudson will “conduct” during performances. The live music will be

complemented by taped sounds, compiled for the production by Radio New Zealand’s archivist, Stephen Riley, of Timaru.

Williams is the 1988 composer in schools. She has used Burnside High School pupils as musicians.

Williams says Hudson had very definite ideas about the sort of music he wanted. She has tried to capture his theme of magic in the theatre.

The sound and music is made by the “orchestra” outside the muslin room. The audience receives the sound from all sides and above.

The idea, says Hudson, is to completely encase

them in the experience, without threatening them. Also included in the 40strong crew producing the impressions is a Maori haka party from the Puawai Access scheme.

Hudson says the production is avant-garde theatre, kitset theatre that he has rehearsed in bits and will put together for performances. The show is being staged with a $4OOO grant from the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council. Hudson has a background in mainstream as well as avant-garde theatre. He served an apprenticeship at Dunedin’s Fortune theatre and attended the New Zealand Drama School. He has

been a professional actor for 10 years.

He has taken a previous production on tour in Germany and worked in theatre in New Zealand with handicapped people.

After the May 25 to 29 season in the Great Hall at the Arts Centre Hudson will join the Court Theatre for two productions.

Williams’ next project is an operetta based on Margaret Mahy’s book, “The Man Whose Mother Was A Pirate.” Mahy has been commissioned to write a script from the book.

The operetta will be produced at Elmwood School, one of three schools where Williams is working with musicallygifted children.