Red Mole

Rip It Up, Issue 5, 1 October 1977, Page 6

Red Mole

Lynne Attwood

Jan Preston ,BeaverandJean McAllister .Red Mole at Ace of Clubs ,Auck!and9th to 12th October.

Red Mole are going on the road. Until March they’ll be based in Auckland and will tour the beach resorts of Northland, hoping for warm receptions and warmer weather. Red Mole have become an integral part of the somewhat incestuous, too-close-for-comfort Wellington social scene. Since the beginning of this year they have been based at the Balcony where they have produced a series of well attended cabarets three nights a week, all going under the name Cabaret Capital Strut. Local body electioneer Carmen has sold the Balcony and it’s to become a disco, but Red Mole were ready to move, feeling restless, and wanting a change. They had long been aware that physically running a venue could drain the creative resourses of its performers. Sally Rodwell, co-founder of Red Mole commented earlier in the year, "A lot of good theatre is hampered because it is held in the same theatre. Vibrations and atmosphere and even the audiences are the same with fixed theatres, even though the plays are different.” To some extent this is what has now happened to Red Mole and writer

Te Puhia, Tolaga Bay and Mahina Beach. They got 180 people in Kawhia and 12 at Te Puhia Springs. They also encountered the wettest summer in history. The White Rabbit Theatre continued its career throughout 1976 with the help of a small Wellington Regional Arts Council grant. They performed at schools and kindergartens and got a regular gig at the Performers Theatre in Courtenay Place. In August, Ace Follies opened for a 12 day season at the Town Hall concert chambers, and it’s interesting to note that they got as many people in those 12 nights as they do in one Sunday night at the Balcony. They took Ace Follies on a selffinanced South Island tour, travelling from Picton to Waldronsville south of Dunedin. White Rabbit played schools and matinees and Red Mole did evening performances. 1977 started with a bang Red Mole were asked to open for the Split Enz Courting the Act tour. It was an unusual and unexpected show which combined masks, music, mime, song and topless fire-eating. Red Mole are now solvent. They work under a lot of pressure to put out

founder / actor Alan Brunton comments: "It was a long hard grind we reached a definite peak with the '6o’s show but everyone wanted to travel overseas. Auckland is the first logical step away.” Getting away from the Balcony will allow a freedom to develop and change. They're eager to perform to new audiences, although Alan acknowledges that the prospect of leaving the security of the Wellington crowd that they know so well, is daunting.

Red Mole is a troupe of actors, musicians and dancers ranging in number from 15 to 20. They are principally: Alan Brunton poet, actor, scriptwriter and puppeteer; Sally Rodwell actress, dancer and puppeteer; Deborah Hunt actress, contortionist, fire-eater; Peter Fantl stunt man, singer, administrator; Jan Preston composer, musician and singer; Arthur Baysting scriptwriter; Jean Clarkeson graphics and design; and Neville Purvis MC, and no cabaret is complete without a MC to tie it together with socio-political comment. Musicians include the Country Flyers, Rockinghorse, Beaver, Kris Klocek, Jean McAllister and Andy Anderson.

Red Mole had its beginnings back in 1974, when Alan Brunton and Sally Rodwell returned from overseas. They

joined forces with Jan Preston and Jenny Stevenson to produce shows blending music, mime, dance and song. In 1975 they mounted the first of their cabaret shows while the rest of the year was spent rehearsing and getting a regular company together to form the White Rabbit Puppet Theatre for a debut performance in the toy department of James Smith’s store! In January of 1976, Red Mole (White Rabbit Red Mole get it?) put together a touring company called Vargo’s Circus. They played holiday resorts on the West and East coasts of

the North Island, places like New Plymouth, Kawhia, Mokau, Te Kaha,

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a new show every four weeks. While one show is in season, another is in the formative stages. And no show is ever the same, because they aren’t actually scripted they’re more in scenario form, and then ad-libbed once the scene is set. It’s back to the old repertory days. There's an enormous amount of tension onstage every night for each person to entertain his fellow strutters. Alan Brunton says, "It’s so stimulating. Everyone works

incredibly hard. Each person contri-

butes and is creatively involved. For example, the Country Flyers came up with the theme for the A&P Show. Normally what happens is that the theme is suggested, then developed in discussion, and Arthur and I sit down and put it on paper, in scenario form. Each entire cabaret fits an A 4 page.” Red Mole are totally self sufficient. Each member is responsible for his own costume, props etc, while management, publicity and promotion is shared. Fifteen members of the Red Mole entourage are going on tour, including Midge Marsden and the Country Flyers. They are booked at the Ace of Clubs in Auckland for four nights, and the show that they present will be

based on the Freak Show, although they will inject Auckland characteristics into the Cabaret.

Cabaret Capital Strut has such a strong Wellington flavour it’s characters and it’s street names, it’s hangouts and its humour, that one finds it hard to imagine it transformed into another setting. At best, the Red Mole shows are brilliant New Zealand entertainment and theatre ... at worst they are risque, on-the-nose, no-holds-barred fun. As Alan says, “People want to know where the New Zealand plays are well they’re here. Our shows are as totally New Zealand as a can of Watties baked beans home grown theatre.”