Natural STUDY NOTES

A Journalist's View of Natural Theatre Company

'STREET THEATRE HAS A BAD NAME'

an article by Toby O'Connor Morse - Venue Magazine 1999

Street theatre has a bad name - dreadfully unfunny children's entertainers patronising the under-fives, students who have just discovered socialism, commedia del'arte insisting on sharing it with Saturday shoppers, and sub-Marceau mime artists whose performance shuttles between egocentric self-indulgence and misanthropy. Most of us avoid street theatre like the plague (except when we are abroad and therefore have a touristic licence to do all the things we would never do at home), since it is brutish, nasty and usually way too long. And yet the Natural Theatre Company - Bath's own street comedians - are universally loved, not only by the natives of their home town, but across the globe. They are slick, professional, and the darlings of the corporate events circuit. Their head office at Widcombe Institute features clocks showing the time in six major cities across the world, and a wall planner showing more inter-continental jet-setting than the Duchess of York.

Forget the local shopping centre, this is street theatre on a planetary scale. They've come a long way from their birth in the backstreets of Bath in the glory days of the late Sixties when art, community and enormous flares dominated the counter culture. Bath Arts Workshop, as it was then, took its idealism and performance art out onto the streets for the very simple reason that it was cheaper than renting a venue. Since then, the Naturals have grown into a global corporation, the stars of international trade fairs, Japanese theme parks and Brazilian shopping centres. They were also the British contribution to the New Year's Eve TV extravaganza that ushered in Copenhagen's year as European City of Culture.

The Naturals blend visual comedy, fertile inventiveness and a large pinch of total absurdity to produce a style of entertainment which Dot Peryer, the company's general manager, sums up as "very strange people doing very strange things ". The hundred scenarios on offer include the Canoodling Coppers - a policeman and policewoman who progress from normal 'evening all' patrolling to passionate snogging - and the Coneheads, probably the Naturals' most widely recognised scenario. They are tourists from outer space, a flock of bizarre, identical grotesques doing all the things which tourists normally do - pointing, gawping, and taking photographs of anything that moves or stands still. At one performance, a passing driver got so distracted by the Coneheads that she crashed her car into a wall. Which must have made for an interesting insurance claim form.

The Naturals' unique contribution was recognised a couple of years ago by the great golden hand of benevolence that is the National Lottery, with an award of £354,999 towards their acquisition of the larger premises.

The Natural Theatre Company's performances are not limited to the streets, hedgerow (I kid you not) and shopping malls of the world. They also produce 'proper' plays, indoor productions where the onlookers have the benefit of seats and shelter from the elements (although audience participation and the occasional bucket of water from the stage is still an essential element). Scarlatti's Birthday Party, the Naturals' bombastic, fantastic play about the composer who made the bad career move of being born in the same century as Bach and Handel, enjoyed a very successful run in Germany. However, such shows are premiered in Bath before setting off on tours around the globe.

The Naturals' singular formula hits the button from Liverpool to Latvia. This is not pure slapstick - characters like the Coneheads and the Stop Smiling protestors have a seriousness, intensity and underlying pathos, which lends the edge to all great comedy. Coming out of the Naturals' office I saw a woman wearing a particularly mad hat. Momentarily I smiled, until I realised that this was no Natural dressed up to entertain, just someone a little sad, yet comic. And that is how the Naturals make their mark - by highlighting the absurd in everyday life. Oh, and being very funny into the bargain.