An Interview by John Lane with
- PADDY HAYTER -

THEATRE IN A LIVING CULTURE

Footsbarn is a multi-cultural community whose skills are shared co-operatively. Its theatre is a travelling tent. It is one of the most exciting theatre companies in Europe today.

FOOTSBARN IS NOW in its twenty-fifth year; tell me how it started.

Oliver Foot and John Paul Cook decided to form a theatre group in an area where theatres did not exist. They played in village squares without a physical theatre and sought to discover their own particular way of playing. After a year they decided to find a place in the locality and bought a farm with a barn near Liskeard in Cornwall. Footsbarn has always been a community of people working for a common aim - to take theatre as far and wide as possible and to use everyone's skills co-operatively. So we share the roles of acting, directing and scriptwriting.

Why theatre, though?

That was the one thing that had entered the bloodstream of the people who were in the group. I myself went into theatre because one day I went to a workshop and felt such excitement that I then wanted to do it. All the people who compose Footsbarn today must have had that same moment.

But is there a deeper purpose than the creative gratification of the artists?

Well there is, yes. I have lived with the company for twenty-three years and during this time my wife, children and I have been able to travel together, live together. It's very rare in theatre to have the chance to rest en famille. Footsbarn is more than a theatre group, it is a community and a way of life as well. This quality gives us that deeper purpose.
There is a particular fulfillment when a group, and particularly a multi-cultural group, work and live together for a long period of time. Another important factor in our success as a community is that everyone receives the same financial reward for what they do and it has been the same
for twenty-five years. Whether someone has been with us for a week or for twenty years, it is the same.

Can you say something about the composition of the present Footsbarn?

Thirty-five people are involved. Our base is in France where we have a centre for education for the theatre and workshops. There, too, we have a studio, space for costumes, masks and a garage. There are normally at least five people working there. On the road there are thirty people. Fourteen people are directly involved in the performance: three musicians and eleven actors Three people are also involved in running the show: one lighting man and two people behind the stage to help. In addition there are two teachers; we have our own school for our children. There are also two people dealing with administration.

And it is the performance that keeps you together.

The theatre is the focus; that is what brings the energy together and that is what people are here for.

And how solid is that group in terms of people coming and going?

Up until four or five years ago Footsbarn consisted of seven actors. However, five years ago there was a big movement because several people left. In their place about four or five new people joined us and we did a big trip to Russia just before the Berlin Wall went down. We were on the road for five months, going from Moscow to Leningrad to Warsaw to Prague to Copenhagen to Berlin to Basle to Paris. During that trip we met other Eastern European performers, and as a result a Polish violinist and her husband joined us. Others also joined
- a French actor and his Polish wife. So around five years ago there was an influx of four or five new people. Most of Footsbarn's history has developed organically in this way.

Turning to your production of The Odyssey, I would like to ask you how decisions are made. Where does an. idea come from and how do you develop it as a group?

Usually, one person instigates an idea and puts it to the rest who discuss it as a group. Normally we do not have regular meetings except when something important needs to be discussed. At this time we had been considering a trip up the Amazon when, during the last scene of Romeo and Juliet, it came and flashed in my mind that we could make a production out of The Odyssey
- probably for no other reason than that we had been talking about journeys and boats. My father had also given me a copy of The Odyssey and in the front a little inscription saying:

"This is the most glorious adventure story ever written. Read it at a lightly Homeric rhythm." So I thought, maybe this is something we should perform. And so I talked with all the performers and we then started the long process.

How did you develop the individual scenes?

We usually take three months to do a show. The first month will be work- shopping and looking into the subject, taking situations and improvizing them. The true nature of theatre is improvization: you are not thinking; it happens. We work quite a lot with a Balinese actor, Tapa Sudana. His ability to get an actor or actress into the right state to make the right move is extraordinary. If an actor is in the right state, he or she will always move and speak in the right way. You cannot analyse it, you cannot think it out. You cannot calculate it.

Thus you may do something five times in different ways before you begin to arrive at a satisfactory solution. Then a month or so later, the production is cast and the actors continue the process of improvization, working on their text.

Obviously the whole process is uneconomical but we believe it is the only way we can work creatively. The Odyssey will tour for the best part of two years, 200 to 300 performances. We did 400 of A Midsummer Night's Dream. But we keep working on the shows and they evolve right up until the last performance.

So you borrow the money to go on tour?

We are in debt the whole time. We have not yet had a grant from the French authorities; we might get one this year. Nonetheless, we have always avoided grants because they restrict independence. We survive by our work. If we got caught in the system and bureaucracy, that could be more dangerous.

A quote from your programme for The Odyssey reads, "Footsbarn's originality is to develop an inventive theatricality, joyful but an antidote to the daily life." Could you comment on this?

It's a marvellous thing if theatre takes people off into space for a while. We say we prefer to share a performance with the public, not perform it for them. The true value of theatre lies in the fact that it can take people into this dreamtime. It was Alfred Jarry who said that the best way the public should leave the theatre is bemused and excited, but not clear. So an audience should not go away thinking, "he did that and he did that and I understand that." Living theatre has a power to touch people's imagination. The old stories need to be retold because of their timeless commentary on the human condition. There is a power that happens when a tent is put up in a field and people enter its space and encounter a story that touches their hearts and their imagination.

How important is it for Footsbarn to be popular?

I wonder what the real definition of popular is. In India theatre is free to the public; it just happens. We have been to India and to Bali where theatre is a part of a way of life. It's not something that is done separately. It is performed in the temples and public places and everyone seems to be involved. A farmer will farm during the day and in the evening he or she will perform in the temple orchestra. Theatre was originally ritual and it was part of life.

We go back to archetypes in the forms that we use. That is why The Odyssey, The Ramayana and The Mahabarata contain elements that will always speak to people. Theatre should not be a commodity, but should be free to the public, made totally accessible. There is some frustration that we have to look for the best contract in financial terms, because that is the kind of culture we live in. If theatre was put back on the street and everyone became involved, then a different kind of culture would develop. A culture where the performers and the audience would become interchangeable. Theatre, like every art, should be part of a living culture.

End

Footsbarn Theatre have no immediate plans to return to Britain, as their itinerary for 1997 will take them to India, West Africa, France, Spain and Austria; but they hope to visit again in the future. For further information, please write to Footsbarn Travelling Theatre, "La Chaussée", 03190 Hérisson, France.