St John Cowcher, Sarah Nelson and Eloise Hunt in Black Swan’s The Red Balloon. Image credit: Gary Marsh Photography.
The 1956 short film The Red Balloon, which was written and produced by Albert Lamorisse and featured his own son and daughter, contains barely any dialogue. The story follows the simple interactions of a boy named Pascal with a large red balloon, which develops a mind of its own and follows him on his daily journeys around Paris. It’s a playful, innocent little film and it earned Lamorisse both an Oscar and a Palm d’Or Grand Prize at Cannes.
Hillary Bell has fleshed the story out in her adaptation for the Black Swan State Theatre Company, adding extra characters and capitalising on a silliness that plays a more latent part in the film. She’s included a cat (Sarah Nelson), a rat (Ben Mortley) and a pigeon (Ella Hetherington) to set the scene and narrate the story, and incorporated – unnecessarily at times – a lot more dialogue into the script. The three of them scuffle and joust, commenting on the action between diving into the bin for dinner, and playing their characters with excellent timing and motion, though with the occasionally slipping accent. While the extra dialogue leans the play into didactic territory, and tends to distract from the wonderful simplicity and illustrative aesthetic of the piece, the animal’s presence adds some enjoyable colour.
St John Cowcher, who plays most of the other characters, including the boy’s grandmother and headmaster, is another very entertaining addition. His experience and physicality are evident in the ease with which he slips between characters. The adult puppeteers and actors are joined on stage by an alternating Pascal (Dylan Christidis, Rory McLaughlin and Jack O’Neill) and an alternating Girl with the Blue Balloon (Eloise Hunter and Katie Price), who help to reinforce the magic of kids’ theatre in an ordinarily very adult venue.
Aesthetically, Red Balloon is beautiful. Designer India Mehta has retained much of the spirit of the original film, contrasting the bright red balloon against the drab grey buildings and costumes of post-WWII Paris, while adding fantastical, storybook elements. Under Trent Suidgeest’s saturated lighting, her buildings bulge and lean, sprout umbrellas and pop open doors at funny angles, spin and roll around the stage in the transitions. In a final scene, director Chrissie Parrot has them come unstuck altogether, chasing the boy down along with his bullies.
Red Balloon is Parrot’s directorial debut with Black Swan, and her primary experience as a choreographer comes through in the sheer physicality of the piece. It’s an almost musical adaptation, with all the singing and dancing and physical theatre that goes on, which certainly succeeds in engaging the broad age range of younger audience members the play is pitched to.
That might be where much of the appeal stops, however, as some tired devices, repetitive bindings and a lack of development doesn’t do a great deal to enroll their more jaded adult chaperones. Not that they matter, though – this one’s for the kids.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
The Red Balloon
By Albert Lamorisse, adapted by Hilary Bell
Director: Chrissie Parrott
Set & Costume Designer: India Mehta
Sound Designer/Composer: Ash Gibson Greig
Lighting Designer: Trent Suidgeest
Cast: Dylan Christidis, St John Cowcher, Ella Hetherington, Eloise Hunter, Rory McLaughlin, Ben Mortley, Sarah Nelson, Jack O’Neill, Katie Price
Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of WA
1 – 17 October 2015
A Black Swan State Theatre Company production
As part of the Awesome International Arts Festival for Bright Young Things
