A PAINTBOX OF CLOWNS
The Court Theatre, Bernard Street, Addington, Christchurch
16/04/2018 - 28/04/2018
Production Details
THE ORIGINAL SILENT SHOW FOR LOUD CHILDREN RETURNS
The original silent show for loud children returns! Red is brave. Blue is smart. And Green is hungry! Join this mischievous, inquisitive and naughty trio as they go on a great adventure. Filled with slapstick, clowning and physical comedy, A Paintbox of Clowns will entertain and enchant all ages without the stars saying a single word. Red! Blue! Green!
Get ready to meet New Zealand’s silliest clowns in The Court Theatre’s silent children’s show, A Paintbox of Clowns.
Writer and director Dan Bain has created a trio of silly and silent clowns, appropriately named Red, Blue and Green to entertain all types of children – and grown-ups.
Without any dialogue Bain has created a show that will have the kids bursting with excitement these school holidays.
“The thing I love about this show is it’s one of the few situations where, as a four-year-old, as a five-year-old, as a six-year-old, you’re smarter than the performers. The characters are so stupid that the show is designed for the audience to get ahead of them. The audience knows what they should do and it just drives them crazy, shouting at them. I bill it as a silent show for loud children because the characters are silent, but everything about it is designed to activate the audience into just shouting stuff out – that’s how it’s exciting.”
A Paintbox of Clowns is returning to The Court’s mainstage after its original debut in 2010 as the first silent show of its kind at the theatre.
Bain acknowledges that the show is a little different to The Court’s usual kids show offerings: “There’s a long history at this theatre of kids shows being made by people who are very verbally clever – so they’ve always succeeded really well at that back and forth kind of banter. But I don’t know if kids are that into that, or if all kids are into that, or if for the age range that we often have, that it’s the most successful mode for them.”
Red, Blue and Green each have three distinct personalities – Red is brave, Blue is smart and Green is, well, hungry. Bringing the trio to life are Monique Clementson, on the back of her starring role in Puff the Magic Dragon; Millie Hanford, a Court Jester most recently seen in young-adult improv-comedy show The Early Early Late Show andNicky Marshall, a well-known Scared Scriptless musician who is making his professional acting debut in the show.
The trio’s clowning antics come directly from Bain’s own experience with the artform, as a former student of the CircoArts programme at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology where he was tutored by Sam Wills – aka Tape Face.
With plenty of problems for the clowns to solve – and for the kids to yell out the answers – A Paintbox of Clowns is a fantastic, interactive show for the children to get involved with these holidays.
“The cool thing about watching this show as a kid is that experience of knowing the right thing to do first and being empowered to be the smart one in the relationship.” Bain says. “In so many shows for kids the show is the teacher and the show is in charge – the show is cleverer than the audience. So, I think it’s funny that the show is so stupid and doesn’t know what to do – the audience have to be the clever ones.”
“You’ll never get the experience that you’ll get from this show from the television.”
Red, Blue and Green will be clowning around at
The Court Theatre
16 – 28 April 2018
11am and 1pm
Relaxed performance 28th April, 11am.
All tickets are $10.
Bookings: phone 03 963 0870 or visit www.courttheatre.org.nz
Cast
Green: Monique Clementson
Red: Nicky Marshall
Blue: Millie Hanford
Creatives
Writer, Director and Costume Designer: Dan Bain
Assistant Director: Kathleen Burns
Stage Manager: Erica Browne
Set Advisor: Nigel Kerr
Lighting Designer/Operator: Geoff Nunn
Composer/Sound Designer: Hamish Oliver
Theatre , Family , Clown , Children’s ,
A suitably celebratory feeling
Review by Lindsay Clark 16th Apr 2018
First given the audience treatment eight years ago, Dan Bain’s wordless script is a romp into physical theatre that still charms the small fry and raises cheerful applause from their minders.
The idea is to use three favourite colours, red, blue and green, to define the appearance and character of three nimble clowns. Red is for brave, blue for smart and green for hungry. This part of the idea is not much developed though and the effect is simply of a trio checking or supporting each other’s antics in an enterprising if goofy way.
Goofy is good though, so that even gags which have been around forever, such as the shy or bumbled entrance and inability to spot whatever is being looked for, earn happy responses from an audience not shy one bit.
Lack of dialogue is no problem at all, given the clear physical treatment dished out by Nicky Marshall (red), Millie Hanford (blue) and Monique Clementson (green). In addition to a fresh approach to the performance occasion, it does require the creative input from sound to be treated even more colourfully than usual. Hamish Oliver is responsible here for bright and suitably bouncy musical pitter-patter, often backed up by lighting from Geoff Nunn.
Participatory opportunities for the audience tap into unselfconscious enthusiasm, from joining in to confirm the colours to offering advice and prompts. It is a sure sign that the set-up is working and that this first day of the school holidays will have a suitably celebratory feeling.
Underpinning the various quests – getting onstage, finding the right individual colour spot, dealing with evasive apples and the bird accidentally pinged when a ladder solution goes wrong – are praiseworthy pointers for the young (and old). Experimentation is a good way to tackle difficult challenges, especially when you join with your friends to negotiate the really tricky bits.
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
Comments