Written and performed by John Bolton
at Trades Hall until
August 6, 1999
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
It is refreshing to be spoken to in the theatre.
Usually we
sit in darkness and listen and, if we are naughty, whisper the odd comment to
our neighbour. John Bolton seems to look each one of us in the eye and have a
personal chat about his life in art and love and Zen Buddhism.
Of course, he doesn't only talk. Bolton, who only recently
closed his acting school in Williamstown, is a consummate mime and clown who
trained in Paris in the 70's at L'Ecole Jacques Le Coq. Paris features
prominently in Shadows and Light.
The art of storytelling is a subtle one and Bolton has a
very individual and effective style that could be called "self
narration": That is, he tells the story while he plays it physically. He
even adds songs and costumes and some audience participation. the style is
warm, charming and ever so engaging. You'll wish you had a cup of tea and bun
by the fire.
The show is a series of anecdotes. It begin with his
childhood in England which is told through shadow puppets. The drama school
tales are hilarious because of the myriad British characters he plays, shifting
from one to t'other without missing an accent.
Bolton peoples the stage with characters, all of who are
believable an complete. Extraordinarily, they bleed into his own narration as
he tells his own story.
He performed in a children's theatre troupe in Edinburgh,
(hence the audience participation) busked through France, met, a mad drunken
American, his wife-to-be and, finally, arrived at mime school in Paris. All
these acting school types are more hilarious if you've worked in this
environment with such pompous egomaniacs, but they are funny even without the
personal experience.
The piece moves swiftly until the more poignant and intimate
moments about his parents and death. There are moments toward the end, when
there is a touch too much sentimentalism as he lights lamps to commemorate
particular people. However, such honesty is lacking on the mainstage and we
could do with more real sentiment rather than less.
The amazing thing is that Bolton manages to make Buddhism as
funny as clowns. It is a very sweet show. I laughed out loud - very loud.
By Kate Herbert
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