Natural STUDY NOTES

Questions & Answers

1. What are you trying to do with your theatre?

Our theatre does not have a 'purpose' as such. We are not storytellers, teachers or moralists. Rather, we set out to engage, bemuse, intrigue and amuse an audience. If we find the subject matter of our work interesting then we believe there is a good chance that others will too. Our theatre is created from observations and responses to life - distilled into humorous overview of the world. Like the court jesters of old, we are modern 'fools'.

2. Why do you work in the street?

We first started to perform in the streets because no one would let us perform inside! The street is the most exciting place to 'put on a mask'. You never know who will be watching or how they will respond (or not). People are taken by surprise and so react with complete honesty. Theatregoers are self-conscious by comparison. They have made a decision to go to a place 'where theatre will happen'. Consequently, they are prepared and ready to have their emotions manipulated, or conversely, they have come with the intention of not being affected. In contrast to this, the street is a dangerous place with wild emotions on the loose, and it is this danger that makes it exciting to the performer. No one can be sure exactly what will happen.

3. You also do indoor shows - is that because they are of greater financial benefit?

Almost without exception, any touring indoor show loses money. We always attempt to break even and sometimes, if a show works commercially abroad, we can end up with a small profit. We do indoor shows because we enjoy doing them. They offer a more precise and controlled environment for the presentation of ideas and situations. They are often good seedbeds for the cross-fertilisation of ideas to and from the street performances. Indoor performances are generally taken more seriously by critics than our outdoor offerings and consequently help to raise our profile in the world of 'straight' theatre. And historically, we first did an indoor show before an outdoor one!

4. How did the company start? Was it intentional to use the street or accidental?

The company came together very much by chance. A number of like-minded people found themselves in Bath in late '60s / early '70s with a lot of creative energy and a shared interest in the 'Arts'. Thanks to the committed efforts of a few of those people, the idea of an alternative Arts Centre was floated (an aspiration that is still not fully realised in Bath). These founding members came from a variety of Arts backgrounds - painting, drama, music, poetry - and gradually fell in together to form a recognisable entity known as Bath Arts Workshop. The Natural Theatre Company was always the core activity around which every other one took place - everything was deliberately 'theatricalised'. This included manual jobs such as furniture removals, shop keeping, and so on - all such tasks were given a sense of fun and a quality of performance to make them more interesting to all concerned. This kind of activity became known as 'Community Arts', although this term was not in common use when we began. Gradually, over about 15 years, each of the 'community' or social work activities fell away and we were left with just the Natural Theatre Company as the mainstay of the organisation. In the very beginning, it was not intentional to use the street as our stage, but it followed on quite naturally from our first outdoor events in parks and gardens, mainly for children's multi-media activities. These happened partly because we had no permanent building in which to operate, and partly as a public expression of our existence.

5. Is it political theatre? If so, what is the relationship between the political nature of the work & the street?

The work is not political in any partisan sense. The general guiding politics of the original members was anarchic and the work provocative in that sense. It still has an underlying anarchy because working on the street is unpredictable and our appearances are often unannounced. The content is generally improvised and therefore 'uncontrolled' as a result. In some countries the simple act of performing in the streets without official permission is a serious offence and could be construed as a political action. It is often a sure-fire way of getting arrested. Sometimes we will perform a piece that is deliberately designed to cause provocation. For instance, where there might be a protest occurring against heavy-handed authority, such as a pro-environment action etc. In this sort of situation we might decide to appear as supporters of the other side of the argument, upping the ante as it were and playing devil's advocate. This behaviour tends to polarise the opinions of anyone on the sidelines and makes the point more humorously and therefore more memorably.

6. Why have you stayed in Bath?

We have stayed because firstly we like living here - Bath is a city, but it's not too big as to be impersonal. Although it took us many years to become 'established' and accepted as a useful asset to the city's life, we now find ourselves as part of the cultural fabric of the city. So much so in fact, that we are regarded as Ambassadors whenever we travel abroad, promoting the city and encouraging foreign interest. The local council now actively supports our continued existence. Secondly, we created our own local community in the rather run-down area known as Walcot. We lived and worked in this part of the town for many years, running a shop, a small theatre and various other activities and more or less became the focal point for all goings-on in the street. We organised festivals, did community work, Christmas celebrations for the homeless and elderly, fund-raising events, etc., etc. We were very much the 'movers and shakers' of the area. Rent hikes and lack of money eventually drove us away from our adopted home and we then had to go looking for almost any kind of roof over our heads. Finally, after years of renting and generally scraping by, we became the proud occupants of a beautifully restored and customised headquarters near the railway station (a building that funnily enough we once occupied temporarily). It had taken us 28 years to reach this point.

7. Does the audience reaction differ between your street and indoor performances? If so, why do you think this is?

Indoor audiences are generally well behaved, so we try to provoke reactions because of this. Naturally, they tend to be more passive than people in the street, as firstly they know there are accepted conventions and codes of behaviour that apply when audiences go to the theatre, and secondly because they are seated and therefore cannot escape. As a result, they tend to feel more vulnerable when picked on. The reactions in the street are obviously much less controlled and controllable. Emotions are rawer and people are more likely to behave aggressively, especially if they think they are being deliberately provoked. This being said, the outdoor audience can be a very exciting animal which, if you can gain control of it, will go along with all sorts of outrageous behaviour. For instance, the invasion of various types of private property that are normally out of bounds - places like government buildings, banks, etc - can be accomplished with a great sense of fun and good humour. These public displays of anarchy can be a delicious antidote to the normal regime of day-to-day rules that we all have to live by and obey.

8. The work is very visual. Why are you in theatre & not some other sort of art form?

The visual trademark of our theatre comes from the background of many of our performers. We have employed people trained in sculpture, costume design, painting and so on. Our founder members, Ralph Oswick and Brian Popay are both Art School graduates. Their work, even at college, was always biased towards the theatrical - Ralph through his costumes and Brian through his painting and sculpture. This collision of forms has always been a driving force in the work of the company. We see no problem with this heavy emphasis on the visual within the theatrical - it seems quite the most natural thing to us. We will often employ other art forms throughout our pieces, but at the core the visuals are probably one of the most important factors that informs the complete body of work.

9. How do you devise & develop a show?

Please see the Style and Production section

10. Do you use much dialogue?

In terms of our street theatre we have as many silent pieces as we do verbal. This is particularly useful when we perform abroad because we are not hindered by language. Also, the silent pieces are more mysterious - they do not immediately give away who you are or what you are about. They intrigue an audience and hence they are more willing to watch for longer. If we use English in a foreign country we will often play upon the idea of our 'foreign-ness' for comedy effect. We will try absurdly hard to make the audience understand us and take this behaviour to the extreme, usually getting words and meanings wrong. We often employ this stereotype of the English abroad - we find that it has much comedy mileage. Indoor shows are a different creature. Dialogue is fashioned of course with the purpose of advancing the plot, but we do tend to employ a large number of visual jokes and mime techniques within most shows.

11. Is your use of space different to that of conventional theatres?

One of the main determinants of the look of our indoor shows is the fact that the set always has to be of a collapsible and transportable nature. Essentially, the size and scale of everything is determined by the size of the vehicle that it must travel in. This is often frustrating for the designer, but also make us more inventive, with the set sometimes even turning inside out to change itself. We tend not to use a lot of fixed stage properties, but rather bring items on and off. The backstage is usually packed with props, the stage somewhat bare. We also use electrically controlled items and props made from traditional magic acts. We will usually venture into the audience throughout our shows, as we like to break away from the convention of the stage. We will also appear before the show in the foyer, or even in the street outside, again to break down this fixed idea of what coming to the theatre entails and to put people in the right frame of mind for the evening. Our street work employs the physical situation that it finds itself in, exploiting the different types of surroundings to its advantage and using them as the 'scenery'.

12. Why do your shows work in so many different kinds of space?

We are a very adaptable and flexible company. We are always open to change and are prepared to go to great lengths to ensure that our shows work in a variety of spaces. The world of small-scale touring makes this essential. Theatre spaces are often improvised from old church halls, huts, municipal ballrooms, libraries and so on and were never custom-built as proper stage spaces. Because we used to run such a space, we are used to the restrictions that go with these changes of use. More often than not the organisations running them are working on very low budgets with the best of intentions so we are duty bound to be ready to adapt. When we come to perform in a fully equipped theatre, we are ready to expand ourselves physically and mentally for that challenge, and it is generally the case that our shows never look small, even in a relatively large arena.