French Connection
25/08/2010 4:13:00 p.m.
FED UP with New Zealand’s theatre scene, Kiwi performer Nick Blake left the country.
His first stop was England, but after two years he felt he had to move again.
“In the 1970s Kiwi theatre was derived from English theatre, [both were] very text based and wordy,” he says. “The visual and physical world of theatre seemed to be irrelevant.”
So he enrolled at a circus school – in Paris.
“I’d always been fascinated with France. I thought if I ever found a shred of an excuse to go I would take it. I wanted to enrich my theatre vocabulary with circus skills. I became aware that French theatre offered the physical approach I needed at that time. The French are a very visual culture, just look at mime artists, even the newspaper stands are very colourful,” he says.
Blake had only basic French when he left England, but at the time the language barrier was an attraction.
“Not working in English meant I had to use my physical expressiveness to communicate. Then, there were only three circus schools in the world, including Paris. The other schools were in Moscow and South Africa. As Paris was only across the channel it was perfect.”
Blake picked up many skills at the school.
“I learnt a range of extreme things you can do with your body. I studied trapeze, acrobatics and magic”
The circus also taught acrobatics on horseback but that was one step too far, he says.
That was over 30 years ago but that training is still paying dividends.
“I still work in physical roles and in [Shipwrecked!] I have to perform some acrobatics”.
Blake has the lead role in Shipwrecked! The Amazing Adventures of Louis De Rougement (As Told By Himself), which has been described as a big fat lie based on a true story.
He plays De Rougement, a would-be explorer who claimed to have had adventures across the globe. Some of his tales include living with Indigenous Australians, travelling to New Guinea in search of pearls and gold, seeing flying wombats, and riding on a turtle.
However sceptics dismissed these claims. (De Rougemont once travelled to South Africa as a music hall attraction, featuring in dubiously entitled show called The Greatest Liar on Earth.)
Blake feels that in many ways his own experiences mirror De Rougemont’s.
“I left New Zealand at 18 on a ship headed for England and in many ways some of the scenes in the play brought me back to that time,” he says.
Shipwrecked! Circa Theatre, August 28-September 25.
His first stop was England, but after two years he felt he had to move again.
“In the 1970s Kiwi theatre was derived from English theatre, [both were] very text based and wordy,” he says. “The visual and physical world of theatre seemed to be irrelevant.”
So he enrolled at a circus school – in Paris.
“I’d always been fascinated with France. I thought if I ever found a shred of an excuse to go I would take it. I wanted to enrich my theatre vocabulary with circus skills. I became aware that French theatre offered the physical approach I needed at that time. The French are a very visual culture, just look at mime artists, even the newspaper stands are very colourful,” he says.
Blake had only basic French when he left England, but at the time the language barrier was an attraction.
“Not working in English meant I had to use my physical expressiveness to communicate. Then, there were only three circus schools in the world, including Paris. The other schools were in Moscow and South Africa. As Paris was only across the channel it was perfect.”
Blake picked up many skills at the school.
“I learnt a range of extreme things you can do with your body. I studied trapeze, acrobatics and magic”
The circus also taught acrobatics on horseback but that was one step too far, he says.
That was over 30 years ago but that training is still paying dividends.
“I still work in physical roles and in [Shipwrecked!] I have to perform some acrobatics”.
Blake has the lead role in Shipwrecked! The Amazing Adventures of Louis De Rougement (As Told By Himself), which has been described as a big fat lie based on a true story.
He plays De Rougement, a would-be explorer who claimed to have had adventures across the globe. Some of his tales include living with Indigenous Australians, travelling to New Guinea in search of pearls and gold, seeing flying wombats, and riding on a turtle.
However sceptics dismissed these claims. (De Rougemont once travelled to South Africa as a music hall attraction, featuring in dubiously entitled show called The Greatest Liar on Earth.)
Blake feels that in many ways his own experiences mirror De Rougemont’s.
“I left New Zealand at 18 on a ship headed for England and in many ways some of the scenes in the play brought me back to that time,” he says.
Shipwrecked! Circa Theatre, August 28-September 25.
