1989

Murray Bramwell talks with Chris and David Erskine, better known as the Fools Company, about their forthcoming participation in the International Arts Carnival in Hong Kong.

Fools Company have been making friends with young audiences at schools, shopping malls, kids’parties and  community celebrations, as well as conventional theatre venues, for rthe past seven years. They have become well-known both in South Australia and interstate and at the end of this month they will be presenting their show, Galloping Grabbas, as one of only half a dozen international  companies invited to Hong Kong’s International Arts Carnival.

Founded by David Erskine, Fools Company, as their archaic name suggests, use traditional clown, mask and magic techniques but there is nothing fusty or self-conscious about their performances. Working first with Wayne Anthoney and his Magic Circus, David went to Europe for a time, performing at the Clown Festival in Amsterdam and pranking with Commedia Dell’Arte troupes in Italy. These broad, popular comic routines still characterise Fools’recent work.

The company enjoyed success with two productions based on the Arthurian character,  Merlyn. Lost in Time, directed by Henry Salter and Spellbound,  directed by Doug Leonard,were  both staged  for the Patch Theatre Company. Then, David’s wife Chris came to the fore with two new works for younger primary school audiences – There’s A Blobzooper in my Paint and the present production, Galloping Grabbas.

Former teachers, David and Chris Erskine are well-attuned to the imaginative world of younger children.Chris, who trained at the Slade School of Fine Art has worked extensively in children’s television, theatre and literature. Initially discontented with the mediocre and often patronising productions which she took her own children to , she decided to see if she could do better.

But there is nothing doctrinaire about her approach. “I like kids to enjoy theatre or music, but I don’t think they have to. These things are an adjunct to things logical and mathematical and, personally, I like that balance. We offer our work as an entertainment for audiences, it’s there if they want it.”

“I don’t trust adult responses to children’s theatre,” adds David. “Chris perceives  from the child’s point of view, not as an adult trying to be clever. We use all sorts of theatrical tricks and devices but it has to be centred on the child’s reality.”

“A lot of the information I am now using in theatre comes from the thirteen years I spent teaching at Marbury school,” Chris explains. “The approaches and philosophies towards the child’s experience we developed there are central to my work now.”

Fools Company have been doing the rounds with Galloping Grabbas for nearly two years now . After well over a hundred performances it has retained its freshness and impact for middle and lower primary children. Using huge latex masks, hand puppets, closed-circuit video and a variety of other visual gizmos  the Erskines tell how Louella, left on her own when her sister is invited to a birthday party, is drawn into a  fantasy birthday party of her own. The eponymous Grabbas is, as David points out, very much the Commedia Capitano, a coward and braggart, but a likeable ratbag for all that.

Like any children’s entertainment worth a cracker, Galloping Grabbas has its share of nail-biting moments but the Erskines are careful about the balances.”In the show we talk about the masks as  a necessary preliminary,” says David. “It took me a while to work out how to read audiences and to judge distances when working with masks. Some kids will have an instant horror at a white face or a mask. As they grow up children are defining reality for themselves and fantasy is usually what they find on TV or in a book or at some safe distance. As soon as that is challenged, suddenly the whole structure of reality is shattered, so I’m always very careful.”

Similarly, Chris is concerned with getting the mix right.”Kids love to be scared and a  lot of it has to do with coming to terms with a fearful world.  But it can sometimes be too devastating. Also, I try in my writing to avoid the idea that there are always good characters and bad ones rather than a combination of good and bad elements in all of us. I like to examine those issues for children.”

In Hong Kong the company will playing to audiences much more culturally attuned to mask theatre but there will be other adjustments to be made. Fools will do six performances of Grabbas as well an outdoor performance with two new latex creations made especially by Chris- giant masks, hands and feet transforming her  and David into Wilfrid and Alexander,strange figures who mutely explore very contrasting approaches to the world.

In collaboration with the bilingual Chung Ying theatre, Fools will present Grabbas in both English and Cantonese.While it is a strongly visual show , some translation will be necessary.  Although as Chris drily  observes , unless the text is kept condensed and fluent it will sound like a performance at the United Nations.

On their return, the Erskines will take Grabbas on the road in regional South Australia and on tour for the Victorian Arts Council. Then they will begin preparation for their next show, also written by Chris, entitled Specs. Like their previous work- modest, creative and highly diverting- it will be worth watching out for.

“Nothing Foolish about this Couple” The Advertiser, July 22, 1989. p.14