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London International Mime Festival

Nola Rae

Mozart Preposteroso!

Written and Performed by Nola Rae
Director – John Mowat
Set, Lighting and Design – Matthew Ridout
Costumes – Alannah Small
Puppets – Matthew Ridout and Nola Rae

Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall

January 21 – 23, 2008

One of my earliest memories of school was of a nun reading aloud to the class from a children’s biography of The Life of Mozart. Was young Wolfgang an unfortunate prodigy and pawn, used to generate bags of money for his father Leopold or simply an extremely talented, precocious child vying for attention? History remains somewhat unclear on those points. However, Nola Rae’s interpretation of the life of Mozart resonates with sparkling humour, touching pathos and above all, heartfelt humanity.

The show begins on an inspired note, with Ms. Rae, powered wig and false nose in place, seated behind a curtain while lit from one side, throwing as Mozartean a profile against the foreground as one could ever hope for or imagine. But we are fooled, as the Mozart she is representing is Leopold, the composer’s father.

Rae plays both Mozarts, father Leopold and son Wolfgang, with forays into puppetry comically filling in any gaps between the two. Boyish Wolfgang is himself a puppet until in one brilliantly executed scene he finally comes of age, literally shedding his father like a disused skin. Life on the road, as a darling of the courts hasn’t exactly earned him a diploma in social skills and his early lack of guidance seems destined to plague the validity of his own judgement forevermore. Yet, Mozart’s musical genius remains unparalleled and some of his best loved pieces are used to help enact scenes from his life, right up to his tragically untimely demise at the age of 35.

Early scenes showing baby Mozart’s unerring eye and ear for musical detail are hilarious, with his aspiring composer father Leopold initially enchanted by his infant son’s musical gifts, until it suddenly occurs to him, with a greedy gleam in his eye, that the child is a potential goldmine and he acts accordingly, wearing his newly fashioned courtly manners on his scarlet coated sleeves as he drags the toddler all over Europe to perform. The fact that Mozart was a harpsichord virtuoso at the tender age of four is amazing and great comic effect is made of the musical curiosity of the baby boy until he reaches that point in time, as well as of the truth that young Wolfgang was, in all other respects a normal little boy, who often defied his father’s wishes. No doubt, this translated into his inborn, often inappropriate sense of fun as an adult. Conversely, one of the composer’s greatest tragedies was to be that he would come to perceive music as his only possible avenue of acceptance by his fellow human beings. Rae has her methodology and performance firmed rooted in both of these aspects of the great composer’s life, never delving too deeply into comic areas without acknowledging darker ones. But she is such a gifted performer herself that whenever she pauses for a moment’s reflection, it is easy to understand what her character is thinking.

And there are moments throughout when laughter of recognition seizes the audience, as evidenced by a simplistic, but unrelentingly raucous scene illustrating the young composer’s procrastination. We’ve all been there, done that and that was definitely the moment to own up en masse! Every type of laughter could he heard in the audience from chuckles to unmitigated guffaws. After all, we’re only kidding ourselves in such moments and from the bursts and titters emanating from some of us, we’re not even successfully doing that.

However, there are so many brilliantly memorable scenes in this performance that it would be neigh on impossible to narrow them down to just one or two, and no doubt everyone watching Rae’s show will have just as difficult a time as I’ve had trying to select a couple from her gem filled hand. Not being accustomed to watching Mime, apart seeing her former teacher, the great Marcel Marceau on television from time to time as I was growing up, I can only say that the absence of language, rather than detracting from the performance, seemed, rather in this case, to greatly enhance it., allowing for focus on emotion rather than mere words. And being weaned on the merits of circus clowns at my father’s knee, having accompanied him to what would now be seen as an old fashioned travelling European circus under a tent every spring like clockwork, I was aware from an early age of the merits of being able to laugh at ourselves through the affectionate jibing of such seemingly, jovial, yet ever so fragile harbingers of truth. Rae’s wide ranging pallet of gestures and facial expressions, from extremely subtle to intentionally outrageous seemed to encompass just about every nuance of human character and emotion.

The supremely gifted Ms. Rae is capable of making one forget anything which is not absolutely relevant to her storytelling in the moment such as the fact that she is a middle-aged female playing a young male classical composer. The red nose she wears in the role seems to highlight both the fact that she is one of the world’s finest clowns and Mozart’s own sense of fun. It’s an out and out delight watching Rae skip across the stage in joyous glee or ruffle her red hair with the inspired lunacy of an archetypal clown. As is the case with only the greatest of clowns, she adeptly straddles the fine line between comic and tragic, turning some of the abundant smiles she generates somewhat reflective at either end. And there is more true emotion in Rae’s use of one hand in the end of her tale than there has been in some Oscar winning performances.

Long-term collaborator Matthew Ridout who single-handedly and marvellously takes care of Set, Lightening and Design works wonders, taking Rae and Mozart’s scenes through candlelight and low riding theatre light, solo moments and more enlivened ones via crowd sound effects, always enabling one to believe that the simple room they’re seeing is only part of a larger grouping, either at home or elsewhere. Ms. Rae and Mr. Ridout apply themselves well in terms of puppet-making too, with progressively larger Mozarts as the story continues until the time comes for son and father to swap places, always allowing enough room for the imagination to fill in details rather than over-embellishing where it would only detract. Last, but certainly not least, the intricate, knowing direction of another long time collaborator, Director John Mowat, himself a Mime and Artistic Director of Portuguese Theatre Company Chapito enables Rae’s polished performance to shine far beyond the bounds of mere rationale.

Nola Rae, who along with co-founder Joseph Seelig founded the London International Mime Festival in 1977, was recently awarded an M.B.E. in the 2008 New Year’s Honours for her outstanding contributions to both Drama and Mime. Congratulations and Bravo Ms. Rae! The time I spent as part of your audience may have only lasted for a brief moment within the course of my span, but it has left in its aftermath, some invaluable reminders of the enduring power of the imagination.

While we are finding out what makes Mozart tick, according to Ms. Rae, we also find ourselves wondering what makes her wordless performance so brilliantly warm and wise. For the answers to those questions and countless others, I’d urge you to hurry and book tickets to see Mozart Presposteroso! while there’s still time.