A plateful of snails and seven actors

By Bernadette Rae

They came and conquered with their "Summer Shakespeare" production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in March. It ran for a five-and-a-half-week sell-out season with hundreds still turned away.

Now the theatre company The One That Got Away, formed by Vanessa Chapple and Ben Crowder, two smart young directors hot from the John Bolton Theatre School in Melbourne, is back with another spectacle, The Young Baron, opening at the Maidment Studio Theatre tomorrow.

A three-week season is planned for the 75-minute show - but watch this space.

The Young Baron was inspired by Italo Calvino's novel The Baron in the Trees. But it is no adaptation, says Crowder. Characters have been combined, condensed, reinvented. And some "strong decisions" have been taken with the storyline.

But the central character, Cosimo, and the general theme remain: the future Baron of Rondo, aged 12, refuses to eat his plate of snails, throws a tantrum and finds not only himself but freedom, passion and an elevated view by deserting his aristocratic, mollusc-munching and not-a-little-weird family to live up in the bird zone.

Crowder and Chapple have been dreaming about the theatrical possibilities of the story for two years. Now, with a talented cast of seven, a bridge structure creating an upper performance layer, and mounds of marvellous material (the result of their creative rehearsal technique), their enthusiasm is infectious.

And if there was still no "end" for the show when they were interviewed last week, that just adds to the excitement.

Chapple and Crowder consider themselves more "facilitators" than directors during the rehearsal process, aiming to draw all the material the characters need out of the actors themselves.

The "directing" comes at the end.

It may seem like an unstructured way to work, they say, but it is highly disciplined. And their technique has proved popular here.

Since March they have run two workshops, one on devised work, one on solo works, and both have been highly successful. "Joyous, precise and disciplined" was one participant's enthusiastic rating.

The solo-works class was especially useful as it also provided the seed for what they hope will be their next theatre performance, funding permitting.

While in Auckland they have also directed The Adventures of the Bookworm, a play for children by the Henderson Healing Through Arts Trust, with a mixed-ability cast, and another children's work with a definite appeal to adults, Bringing Up Baby, with Holy Cow Productions.

Bringing Up Baby played to community audiences during the previous school holidays and has its theatrical premiere at the Maidment Studio on Saturday.

"It is unpatronising children's theatre," says Crowder of the hilarious story starring Holy Cow's creative team of Margaret-Mary Hollins and Lynne Cardy, who play 14 characters between them. The show also features the world's biggest baby, Frank Junior, Frank and Francis Bottom, his first-time parents, a baby-phobic landlord and his clucky wife, Lola.

Bringing Up Baby will be performed at Te Papa in April 2000 and a storybook of the play will be launched at the same time.

Crowder has also appeared recently on Shortland Street, and Chapple has been back to Melbourne to "pack up properly."

"I thought A Midsummer Night's Dream would be a one off project," she confesses. Now The One That Got Away is looking at a much longer stay and they have even coerced two expatriot Kiwis and fellow students at the John Bolton Theatre School, Julie Nolan and Jo Lange , to return home. Nolan and Lange are in the cast of The Young Baron.

"There is the lack of theatres in Auckland, and the lack of funding," Chapple confesses. "The Young Baron is a low budget production which means we have to work extremely hard so it doesn't look like a low budget production! But when you get such a good response from the audiences - it keeps you believing!"