Nola Rae (GB)
“MOZART PREPOSTEROSO”
Sunday, Nov. 30th 2008 (7.30 p.m.)
Austrian premiere
Without words
Photo: Matthew Ridout
Nola Rae as Mozart
Directed by John Mowat
Designed by Matthew Ridout
Costumes by Alannah Small
Nola Rae's new show is sheer joy... It's magical theatre. The Stage
...this is an unmissable piece Total Theatre
simply remarkable for it's humour, sensitivity, precision and intelligence La Nouvelle Republique
Run to the central theatre right away! stunningly funny...The Oslo public should not miss the bus. It is tonight only... Dagsavisen, Norway.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
KING OF THE KEYBOARDS forced to play the piano blindfolded.
HIS HIGHNESS OF THE HARPSICHORD forever harassed by his conniving father.
CLOWN OF THE CLAVIER bowing and scraping to emperors and emissaries.
CURSE OF COMPOSERS dashing off masterpieces at the billiard table.
EMPEROR OF OPERA with a salacious interest in young sopranos.
REGENT OF THE REQUIEM dead and dumped in a lime pit.
BELOVED OF GOD
The triumphant child never left the man.
The man could never triumph like the child.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born with a sliver tuning fork in his mouth. Carefully nurtured and shamelessly exploited as a child genius by his father Leopold, he was the toast of royal courts, performing feats of music never before heard in one so young. As he grew older and could no longer pass as a prodigy, his sublime musical skills were often overlooked. People could only see a strange, little man whose clownish behaviour did not endear him to those who mattered. Irreverently, he both charmed and irritated in equal measure. Finally, he paid a high price...he was largely ignored.
Nola Rae explores the musical phenomenon from his cradle to his grave, and in speculating on what made his so endearing and absurd, introduces MOZART THE CLOWN to an unsuspecting public.
NOLA RAE
Nola Rae was born in Sydney and immigrated to London with her family in 1963.
She trained at the Royal Ballet School in London and then danced professionally at Malmö Stadsteater and Tivoli Pantomime Theatre in Copenhagen, before turning to mime and studying with Marcel Marceau in Paris.
She was a founder member of the French based International Research Troupe Kiss, co-founded Friends Roadshow with Jango Edwards, and was a member of the Bristol Old Vic Company. In 1974 she founded the London Mime Theatre with Matthew Ridout, with whom she has worked ever since.
Nola and Joseph Seelig, were the original instigators of the London International Mime Festival, which has now been running for over 20 years.
Nola premiered her first solo show at Le Festival du Monde in Nancy in 1975. Since then she has created 12 full length shows and toured the world. Her unique combination of mime, clowning, puppetry, dance and foolery has been seen in 67 countries to date..
A great lover of the works of William Shakespeare, she created the extraordinary Shakespeare the Works with John Mowat, where four of the Bard’s tragedies were turned into comedies, and included a unique version of Hamlet for two hands.
She later tackled A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where the fairies were represented by puppet salad vegetables.
In 1990 Nola radically changed her style and began to present full length comic dramas where one wordless character is developed over an evening. The highly successful Elizabeth’s Last Stand, directed by Simon McBurney, is such a piece. It explores the loneliness of an old woman when she develops delusions of grandeur and tries to recreate the court of Elizabeth I of England in her living room.
This was followed in 1993 by a two woman show with the contemporary dancer Sally Owen. Directed by Carlos Trafic, from Argentina, And the Ship Sailed On explores the clash of two women of different cultures who are forced to share a small cabin on a nightmarish voyage of immigration.
In Mozart Preposteroso Nola uses all her skills to present a clown’s fantasy on the life of a musical phenomenon.
Exit Napoleon Pursued by Rabbits is her latest solo show, inspired in part by Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator. It deals with dangerous charisma and how to get it.
Home Made Shakespeare with the Swedish actor Lasse Äkerlund is Nola's latest show and has her using her voice on stage for the first time.
Nola is also now in demand as a director, her speciality being subverting tragedies, by turning them into clown plays. She began with The House of Bernarda Alba by Garcia Lorca, performed by the Swedish all women clown group Teater Manjaña. They won the Swedish Humour prize for the funniest show of 1996. Other winners were Birgit Nilsson for her biography and Lee Evans who won the international humour prize. She has also directed Miss Julie by August Strindberg for the same group, a hit at the 1998 Strindberg Festival in Stockholm. The latest directing project in Sweden is Ben Hur set in an old people's home. This work for 10 female clowns is due to premier next year.
Her directing work in Norway includes Doña Quixote by Coby Omvlee and Ibsen’s The Wild Duck for the Oslo Nye Teater.
Her most recent directing project was The Three Musketeers (the clown version) for Les Anges Perdus in Vienna 2006,
She also gives workshops, lecture demonstrations and master classes when time allows.
Nola and Joseph Seelig, were the original instigators of the London International Mime Festival, which has now been running for 30 years.
Over the years Nola has made numerous television appearances. They include a BBC Playhouse Special After You Hugo, where she played a French dancer who impersonates the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova in variety theatre.
She has been the subject of two documentaries : BBC Arena and Meridian Television’s The Pier.
Nola has received a Total Theatre Lifetime Achievement Award, The Charlie Rivel Award for Clowning from the Festival of Amandola and has been inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in the United States.
Elizabeth’s Last Stand was awarded best solo show of 2000 by Venue Magazine.
In 2008 Nola was awarded an M.B.E. by the Queen in her New Year's Honours List for services to Drama and to Mime ("Member of The Most Excellent Order of The British Empire").
(Text taken from Nola Rae's homepage: www.nolarae.com)