Faustroll (theatre score) with David Downes and Joe Bleakely

In 2009, Lumina Productions submitted a proposal to the Smash Palace Fund Selection Panel for Phase One of its project Faustroll.  The project is intended to result in a dramatic production – a theatrical odyssey through some fundamental concepts in modern physics.  The show has a number of levels:

1. the story of Faustroll and his companions, as they undergo a series of adventures and journey from one island to another;
2. spectacular displays of light, water and strange phenomena, that lead us to question what we see, while we share in the fun and excitement;
3. an insight into our understanding of the fundamental nature the universe that has been developed through the 20th century.

Two performances of a pilot presentation of The Extraordinary Adventures of Doctor Faustroll and His Search for the Luminiferous Aether, were given at Stage A at Stone Street Studios in Miramar on 4 March 2010.

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I got to know Joe Bleakely through an ongoing dialogue we had with Geoff Murphy and Howard Taylor. Geoff had become interested in presenting classical music in a larger-than-life format and had been creating images and video using my Planet Damnation. It was awe-inspiring stuff, the scale at which Geoff was thinking. This project never eventuated, but it did bring Joe and me together and I felt a strong connection with him. His imagination and fantasy when applied to the visual magic of live theatre is extraordinary. It's very much worth looking through the content on his website.

Joe was working on an idea for production - as I write I don't know how to describe it. Not a play, more like a live movie. We presented the work-in-progress at a massive film studio space in Stone St. The audience were picked up in a blacked-out bus on Courtenay Place and driven to the venue having no idea where they were going or what they were about to witness. By the time the bus drove directly into the building, the audience had no idea where in Wellington they were.

They disembarked to a pitch-black wide open space with no sense of depth or height. In this space were multiple sets and the audience were rotated to face different directions, and guided to move to a different location within this grand nothingness.

The first thing that happened was the 'big bang' a massive explosion of light and sound. And it progressed from there. There are screenshots of the draft script in the image gallery below. And some audio of the various sounds and music we created.

The 'we' in this was me, David Downes and, later on, Jared Commerer. David and I created the materials, and Jared and I ran the audio and music in the two presentations of the show.

Close to the delivery date David had to move on to another project and Jared came in to help see it through. He recently reminded me of this:

"The blackout aspect made it tricky for those controlling the sound (etc.) from inside a tent in the corner of the space – we had lamps but had to also minimise how much light was getting out. I remember there was one moment in the show where I had to precisely time a drop of water sound effect with a projected visual of a water drop… there was nothing to cue the droplet, so I’m not sure I ever got the timing exactly right....."

The project eventually went on to become a fully-fledged production, presented at Bats Theatre in Wellington, with music by Adam Page. By this time Joe's son Charley Bleakely had become integral to the writing, directing, and production of the show.

It was a gift to work with Joe and I've always wished we had collaborated more.

Extract

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FAUSTROLL

Act 1, Scene 1 – IN THE BEGINNING...

The audience enters a dark and mysterious auditorium; an indistinguishable background noise fills the emptiness, the audience unaware of the sound.

They take their seats, but it seems nothing is there – no stage, no curtains, no lights, nothing... until...

The ambient noise drops, the dim house lights fade away to pitch black darkness...

the audience experience perfect emptiness...

a pregnant nothingness...

an expectant canvas of space...

From this epic darkness, a faint hum builds... slowly... steadily... filling the space...

The sound begins to accelerate, building in intensity and power, the audience feeling the exhilaration of this intense atmosphere –

WHOOM! The space fills with a blaze of light as the sound reaches a massive crescendo! Flashes radiate throughout the space stunning the audience with their brilliance. As their eyes adjust, sparkling glowing particles of light are revealed filling and floating around the auditorium, heads are turned this way and that as they take in the breadth of the experience – it is as if they are witnessing the birth of the Universe!

As the chaos and light diminish, a 19th century laboratory is revealed. Dr Faustroll sits stunned beside his startled pet baboon, Bosse-de-Nage.

FAUSTROLL:
Well... that wasn’t quite the result I expected...

A dazed Bosse-de-Nage nods, promptly collapsing onto his side.

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