| Mr
Pinocchio
Lazzi's acclaimed production Edinburgh Fringe, Hill
Street Theatre, Aug 2001 |
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'The
performances are flawless, this challenging piece of mime in the style
of Polish avant garde theatre is a unique experience. It ... tells its
bitter-sweet story in a language of theatre that you may not yet have
encountered.' (The Scotsman) 'the surprise gem of my visit to Edinburgh, a ‘circus-for-the-mind’...a wonderful and enchanting piece of theatre' (Total Theatre Magazine) full
text of reviews A duo performance with Sandy Grierson as the young Pinocchio, and David W W Johnstone as Mr Pinocchio. |
| Director David W W
Johnstone writes:
For many years I have been fascinated by the idea of Pinocchio – a puppet who came to life at the first touch of the carver’s chisel. From the Walt Disney film we somewhat know the plot: this magical toy suffers trials and tribulations to eventually ‘learn his lesson’, become ‘good’ and be rewarded by the Good Fairy with real boyhood. The mature aspects of this children’s fable intrigued me enough to seek out a copy of Carlo Collodi’s original novel. It was difficult to find – could this classic really be out-of-print in English? Eventually, I found a battered copy in a second hand bookshop. Suddenly, a funny and sophisticated circus-for-the-mind sprang off the tattered pages, cartwheeling into my delighted adult psyche. Signor Collodi had not let me down. His novel sizzles with satire and psychology. He rivals Swift in humour, subtlety and poignancy. This is not just a story for children! Immediately, I wanted to play the grown up boy, Mr Pinocchio. A Quixote who surrendered his quest. A Prospero who broke his magic staff. Ejected from the land of miracles by a whale-sized repulsive sneeze! What a jackass am I... The play, Mr Pinocchio, has now itself become real. It is a capricious dialogue between the grown man and the puppet as the two-who-are-one. A reunion staged in the whale’s-belly subconscious of a disenchanted man. A synopsis: The audience finds a fifty-year-old man, Mr Pinocchio, sitting alone on a small stool centre stage, his head in his hands. He feels every minute of his fifty years. His poor rheumatic joints stiffening in a painful remembrance of woodenness. Growing old may perhaps be a bothersome reality to all, but who else has the burden of knowing that at one time he was immortal, ageless, carefree, and indeed magical? And what grinds away at him is that he happily gave it all away to be normal. Suddenly appears onstage a stiff wooden stick of a lad… it is himself so long ago in those days of adventure and fun. Remembering their story in a sparkling kaleidoscope of images, the young and old Pinocchio cavort in a collage of characters who spring from Collodi’s pages to dazzle with bittersweet playfulness. Was this free misbehaving abandon really the evil waywardness that the Blue Fairy chastised him for, or was it the lightning-bolt of youthful exuberance, vibrant and unrestrained, that we are forced to shed in the name of maturity? Imagine waking up to face yourself as a youngster. Imagine liking what you see. Imagine not liking what you’ve become since. Imagine Mr Pinocchio! What is the dark side of the Disney cartoon? Who is the monster? Perhaps Mary Shelley wrote Pinocchio and Collodi wrote Frankenstein! This conception of the old story focuses on what it means to be normal, human, and well-behaved, as opposed to being unique, hungry for adventure, and a wilful dreamer. Join the hapless and bumbling Mr Pinocchio on the ups and downs of being human! The production appeals to both young and old, the themes resound on many levels. Using a combination of bold characterisation, physical comedy and sparkling wordplay, our mission, like Pinocchio’s, is to have… and to make… fun!
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