Red Mole (Theatre Company)
Red Mole was an avant garde theatre company from New Zealand. It was founded by Alan Brunton and Sally Rodwell in 1974.[1]
Biography
Red Mole was formed in 1974 by Alan Brunton and Sally Rodwell. Other members of the company included Deborah Hunt, Ian Prior, Jan Preston, Jean McAllister and Martin Edmond.[2] Red Mole was one of the best known alternative theatre companies in New Zealand.[3] In 1977, they toured New Zealand with Split Enz.[4] Red Mole later travelled internationally. From 1978 to 1988 it was based in the United States and Europe.[1][5]
In both New Zealand and overseas, Red Mole was backed by the band Red Alert.[6]
Red Mole was known for its rough, political and experimental style. Its productions often combined a low life New Zealand style humour and sentiment with high-art European Modernism.[7] Authorship of Red Mole works was complex as Brunton and Rodwell wrote for the company both individually and together, but many other works were devised by the entire company.[7]
In 1979, Sam Neill wrote and directed a documentary on Red Mole, titled Red Mole On the Road.[3]
Red Mole created a manifesto with five principles:
- to preserve romance.
- to escape programmed behaviour by remaining erratic.
- to preserve the unclear and inexplicit idioms of everyday speech.
- to abhor the domination of any person over any other.
- to expend energy.[8]
With the deaths of Brunton in 2002 and Rodwell in 2006, Red Mole effectively dissolved.[9]
Works[10]
- Wimsy and the Seven Spectacles (1974)
- Siddhartha (1975)
- Cabaret Paris Spleen (1975)
- Vargos Circus (1976)
- Ace Follies (1976)
- Towards Bethlemhem (1976)
- Cabaret Pekin 1949 (1976)
- Cabaret Capital Strut (1977)
- Slaughter On Cockroach Ave (1977)
- Pacific Nights (1977)
- Ghost Rite (1978)
- Our World (1978)
- Crazy In The Streets (1978)
- Bitter Lemons (1978)
- Goin' To Djibouti (1978 and 1979)
- Last Days of Mankind (1979)
- Blood In The Cracks (1979)
- Dead Fingers Walk (1979)
- Numbered Days In Paradise (1979)
- Lord Galaxy's Travelling Players (1980)
- I'll Never Dance Down Bugis St Again (1980)
- The Redmole Version (1980)
- The Early Show/The Late Show (1980)[11]
- The Excursion (1982)
- Childhood of A Saint (1982)
- 2 Quacks on Io (1983)
- The Rise & Fall of T D Lysenko (1983)
- Liberty Is Not Won With Flowers (1983)
- Dreamings End (1984)
- Poems for the Young At Hearts (1984)
- Cabaret Katti Mundoo (1985)
- Circi Sfumato (1985)
- Lost Chants For The Living (1986)
- Playtime (1987)
- Hour of Justice (1987 and 1988)
- Gas Attack!! (1988)
- New Hope (1988)[12]
- Comrade Savage (1989)[13]
References
- Cardy, Tom. "Theatre Revolutionary". NZEPC: New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre. NZEPC: New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
- Atkinson, Laurie. "Actors and Acting - The rise of professional theatre, 1960 to 1980". Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
- "Red Mole on the Road | Short Film | NZ On Screen". www.nzonscreen.com. NZ On Screen. Retrieved 2017-08-16.CS1 maint: others (link)
- "Art New Zealand 10 - Red Mole". www.art-newzealand.com. Winter 1978. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
- Edmond, Murray (August 2002). "Jacket 18 - Alan Brunton, 1946–2002: A Memoir". jacketmagazine.com. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
- "The Drongos - AudioCulture". www.audioculture.co.nz. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
- Edmond, Murray. "From Cabaret To Apocalypse: Red Mole's Cabaret Capital Strut And Ghost Rite". NZEPC: New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre. NZEPC: New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
- Edmond, Murray (2014). Then It Was Now Again: Selected Critical Writing. Pokeno, New Zealand: Atuanui Press. p. 96.
- Calder, Peter. "Obituary: Alan Brunton". New Zealand Herald. New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
- "NZEPC - Alan Brunton - RED MOLE : A CHRONOLOGY OF WORKS 1974-2002". www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
- Murphy, Roy. "Red Mole Burrows into Broadway". murphyroy.com. Phoenix Story Productions llc. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
- Brunton, Alan (1989). A Red Mole Sketch Book. Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University Press. pp. 79–83.
- "Red Mole". TeAra.gov.nz.