International street art can generate its own unexpected comedy ? from its audience, as Ralph Oswick reveals.
Natural Theatre has been taking well-observed comic characters and placing them in bizarre situations all over the world for over 35 years. We’ve just ticked off our 67th country, including much of South America, Central Asia and everywhere else from Lapland to Liechtenstein. How do different cultures react to our often unannounced street theatre appearances? Well, it’s safe to say that Mr and Mrs Ordinary the world over are invariably up for a laugh and are happy to have a break from shopping, yak-milking or whatever other activities make up their daily grind. Amongst the skills possessed by our teams is choosing the right scenario from our vast repertoire. (In Japan, the garden gnome is not a universal image for example. People kept wishing us a Merry Christmas!) Our aim is to make our humour universal, so a lot of thought goes into the process.
It’s interesting to see how our work has gone down in the world’s streets and shopping centres. In Pakistan, the over-zealous truncheon-wielding guard sent to protect us had to be told not to whack the keener audience members when they joined in with our famous Pink Suitcases routine. In South America, they practically riot to get a good view, and egged on by large bossy ladies in floral frocks they then sit down in a perfect
circle, get out their enormous family picnics and politely wait for ‘the play’ to start. This is no good to us as we tend to take the audience with us on an improvised journey, weaving in and out of shops and getting mixed up with traffic. We soon learnt to get going as soon as we left the crew bus, as once they got seated nothing, but nothing, would persuade them to move. Once, in Bogotá, I am ashamed to admit we gave up and left them to it. We don’t know how long they sat staring at an empty circle, but suspect that soon the picnics took over and they made a lovely day of it. In Greece we found that the public stared blank-faced, but doubled up with laughter behind our backs.
On one particular Aegean island noted for its pilgrimage shrine, a
cackling old lady in traditional black garb ran after us, making unmentionable gestures with a cucumber. The onlookers slapped their thighs and fell about, snapping away with their mobile phone cameras. A devout pilgrim making her painful way on all fours up the hill to the votive chapel was totally ignored. In Ireland, true to the stereotype, the audiences give as good as they get verbally. “Bloody big confetti they use round here,” commented some wag when our weeping brides scenario
was pelted with cardboard boxes in a Dublin market. They are not lacking on the visual side either. Witness the unfeasibly well-endowed fellow who
appeared completely naked in a pub window within seconds of seeing our
pretend nudists passing by.
Often audiences are unaware they are watching a performance, but the
President of Costa Rica completely understood our mixture of theatre
and reality: he invited us to infiltrate a rather serious cabinet budget meeting. But what the unspeaking bus driver who ‘kidnapped’ us for two hours in Turkmenistan was thinking we never ascertained. Perhaps one of our best reactions came from a Chinese man in Kunming. On seeing us dressed as bowler hatted city gents, he greeted us with a cheery “Good morning, stereotypical gentlemen!”
Ralph Oswick is Artistic Director
of the Natural Theatre Company.
t: 01225 469131;
e: ralph@naturaltheatre.co.uk;
w: http://www.naturaltheatre.co.uk