Construction zone work all the better for heckling

Trygve Wakenshaw (left) and Barnie Duncan get inspiration from the 1920s greats of slapstick

Mime artists Barnie Duncan and Trygve Wakenshaw have a lot to say about subjects other than theatre, topics as diverse as growing up in India to becoming the first United Nations Secretary-General.

But it is their zeal for theatre - and deconstructing it so they can reconstruct it - which occupies most of our conversation about Happy Hour for Miserable Children.

The two are the on-stage half of Theatre Beating, an award-winning company inspired by comedians such as Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy.

Duncan and Wakenshaw joined forces after "ingratiating themselves" into a 2003 production called The Butcher's Daughter, directed by Geoff Pinfield.

"At the wrap party everybody kept coming up and saying how they thought we should have our own show," says Trygve Wakenshaw, named after the United Nations' first Secretary-General Trygve Lie.

"As the night wore on and we got merrier and merrier, we started to get more definite about the plan and we woke up the next day with hangovers and figured we ought to get writing," says Duncan, who went to the same primary school in India as Spike Milligan.

The result is Happy Hour for Miserable Children which is neither miserable nor for children.

It's a macabre comedy full of physical theatre, a show that ignores any concerns about mixing sex with religion and displays a chaotic ignorance of official health and safety regulations.

Two bungling builders, Toot and Collins, set about renovating a once glitzy but now rundown former go-go bar into a church - under the gaze of an alluring but sinister madam. Little do the two innocents know that behind every pole and mirror-ball are dark and gory secrets.

Happy Hour premiered at Auckland's Covert Theatre in 2003 as a truly devised show - no director, no script and no budget.

The mix of slapstick, mime, cabaret and vaudeville made it a crowd-pleaser and inspired the two to head to Wellington's Fringe Festival.

Pinfield joined them to direct, and an accordion-playing punk added to the cast.

The result, Happy Hour for Miserable Children, won the 2004 Fringe Festival award for best comedy.

Since then, Theatre Beating has toured the New Zealand theatre festival circuit with a children's show, The Magic Chicken, and Wakenshaw and Duncan have a show on Alt TV in which they play two German conceptual artists.

This is the fourth incarnation of Happy Hour, but the cast has been downsized with Yvette Parsons playing the lusty madam. Sound-effects whiz Sam Hamilton is also on stage.

They now also have a set designer, Rachael Walker.

"We figured we had made a little bit of money so we might as well concentrate on what we do best and leave the set to someone else".

Rather than expecting audiences to sit quietly and clap politely, Duncan and Wakenshaw want them to heckle. Audience participation, they say, is what theatre was once all about and that is the way they want it to be for their shows - which brings us to the midnight show on Friday, September 22.

"In Shakespeare's day, theatre was the rock'n'roll of the time," Duncan says.

"People came along after they'd been to the pub and were loud and told the performers what they thought. That's what we want.

"The idea is that you've been to the pub with your mates, maybe you've had a few, and you think, 'What should we do now?' You can come along and see a show."

Happy Hour for Miserable Children's second Auckland outing was at nightclub Galatos. It was a first for the club and an important achievement for Theatre Beating, who want theatre to be entertaining enough to drag the punters out of bars.

"Slapstick is hot," Duncan says. "We are inspired by the 1920s greats who used intelligence and real imagination. Sadly, I think a lot of slapstick has degenerated into the Jackass kind of humour, which isn't intelligent and has no weight to it. It's not just about punching one another."

After Auckland, they hope to tour internationally but have declined an invitation to the China Shanghai International Arts festival next month. Funds have stretched to a set designer but not to a trip to China.

What: Happy Hour for Miserable Children

Where and when: Herald Theatre, Sep 19-30, 8pm, Sat 2pm, midnight show Sep 22