Culture

"The constraints of the theatre are only limited to your creativity… and your lack of budget.”

Hitting the stage this week at Allen Hall Theatre is Travis Kooky and the One Problem, an original work by Rosie Howells, a second-year student at Otago who is becoming renowned around campus for her ability to write comedic genius. I met up with director Jacob McDowell, graduate of Allen Hall’s Theatre Studies, to discuss black comedy, German cinema, and The Wiggles.

“I feel very lucky to put it on. It’s one of those weird things that, like any script, depends on the balance between adaptation and storytelling. Whether you’re going to stay completely true to the stage notes and everything the script initially comes off as. [The question is], how are YOU going to tell the story?” The story began with Howells writing a one-act play for an assignment in her Playwriting course last semester. McDowell believes “creativity works best with a little bit of pressure and drive. So if you’ve got limitations, it’s really nice to push to the boundaries of your limitations, and if you’ve got time constraints, to really work under those time constraints, to really give it a challenge.”

And it most certainly paid off. Howells’ quirky style shines through in this black comedy based around a successful children’s TV presenter, Travis Kooky. “She’s awesome and the script’s hilarious… The comedy and the darkness are like a bit of salt and sugar, it’s really nice to have both. It’s kind of like having ice cream and popcorn, you really get that variety of flavour… It’s refreshing to see a comedy which has depth of character.”

Using his skills from both Theatre and Film, McDowell is creating an exciting take on the piece for its first journey to the stage. “What initially came to mind was the idea of this as a story within a story, and for me that links heavily to the start of German Expressionist cinema. So taking those elements, taking the distorted reality within the reality, and then combining them with the iconic Wiggles and Peewee Herman sort of television to give it that sort of liveliness, action and colour… I think this embodies the aesthetics of what the piece is going to be visually like.”

It’s a great success for a piece born and bred at Allen Hall Theatre to come to fruition in the Lunchtime Theatre season. “I love it, I think it’s awesome, and I think it’s such a cool service that Theatre Studies and the University puts on for the students, because it allows these kinds of things!”

“My cast is the great and wonderful Alex Wilson and Baz Macdonald. We’re just doing two actors, and they’re awesome, they’re lots of fun.” The script features six characters. Alex Wilson will play five of the above, which vary from a policeman to a grandmother. “Fun and play are big things for me which have to happen within a theatre, and within a rehearsal space as well.” By the sounds of things this will definitely shine through to the performance. As McDowell explains, “the main goal of this is simply to entertain. I want to actually give people a show and especially a more modern audience, trying to get, not just the usual theatre goers, but to get other people to actually come in to theatre and enjoy and go ‘Hey that’s actually not what I thought theatre could be but it’s really cool.’ You know, I think that’s everyone’s goal.”

Travis Kooky and the One Eyed Problem will feature in Allen Hall this Thursday and Friday at 1pm.