Elric on the role of theatre and the work of a director – An interview with Elric Hooper, recently retired Director of the Court Theatre in Christchurch – Part 3

Theatre the gymnasium of emotion Elric’s conversation is so often enlivened by vivid images. He began talking about the theatre with just such an image. “Theatre is the gymnasium of emotion. You go there to exercise muscles that you may not have to use in real life, but just as to be physically in trim you should not remain sedentary but go for a run to get rid of excess fat and develop your abdominals, the theatre is there to develop your emotional
abdominals. You discover muscles you never knew you had before, that you are a bigger person than you were before. Why should we weep for a Danish prince? Why should we be so upset about the death of Desdemona? Why should we laugh at ridiculous people in eighteenth century London in School for Scandal? The theatre, like a gymnasium, should always extend the audience’s emotional muscles. People ask, ‘What is the relevance of this?’ Relevance often means that we refuse to go outside the blinkered area that we have predetermined defines us. If we accept that the theatre is the emotional gymnasium we should long for strange and wonderful experiences and new understandings.”

W.H. Auden said that poetry died when it was possible for people to travel, in that the images that we once sought inside we now seek outside, in the same way people provide their poetic images by travel these days. Elric believes that the same is true of the theatre. It is the travelling of the mind and it can take you to strange and exotic places. However, some people travel to a new country and order the type of food that they eat at home. In the same way they are loath to try anything new in the theatre.

Choice of programmes at the Court Theatre Most philosophers tend to produce the philosophy in which they themselves would be the ideal person. Philosophy Like science is heavily influenced by the psychological make-up of the person doing the thinking. The same is true of theatrical directors. One fundamental rule in choosing the programme was that Elric would not put on a play which he himself would not pay full price to see.

On reading a play he would often think how much he would enjoy seeing it on stage and become full of enthusiasm for casting and producing it. There had to be a gut instinct that he would want to spend the whole evening watching it.

He will not stage plays for political reasons. He does not feel any moral duty to put on New Zealand plays which are ethnically correct or politically correct. The plays he puts on may meet these criteria, but that is not the reason for staging them. “Some people may think me trivially minded when I say that all great theatre is divine gossip in the sense that the human excitement of looking through a crack in the fence and seeing the neighbours next door is really the core of the theatre. Unless a play carries that in some way as Waiting for Godot does and Hamlet does, I see little point in doing it. I do not want to stage plays merely for political purposes.”

Elric believes that one reason why the theatre in this country is not as healthy as it should be is that we are a small Calvinist country and our commentators and critics are too dominant in determining the atmosphere. Our populace is not big enough to refute the commentators. The theatre may take on the moral obligation of doing ‘the right thing’, but the theatre is rarely at its best when it is consciously doing that. All the great theatres of the past have been popular theatres, not channels of moral teaching.

Three main branches of operation Classic theatre As the Court Theatre was state subsidised Elric felt that there were three main branches of operation. First, because we speak English, which gives us access to the greatest dramatic literature, he felt it was incumbent on him to stage the great classic theatre from Shakespeare to playwrights like Stoppard and the great comic writers.

Contemporary plays

The second level was the great contemporary theatre. Although New Zealanders travel Elric believes that they should have access to what the great theatre centres around the world say are the most interesting contemporary plays. This has resulted in productions of plays from London, New York and Paris. An American play which he found an exciting challenge to produce was Tony Kushner’s Angels in America.

New Zealand plays The third area is New Zealand work, so of the nine plays that go into the subscription season three would have a classical bias, three would be contemporary and three would be of New Zealand origin. If possible there would be more New Zealand plays. One particularly memorable New Zealand play was Bruce Mason’s Blood of the Lamb, which was his last completed play and broke new ground for New Zealand in its handling of Lesbian issues.

Balancing the budget When he first became Director of the Court New Zealand plays were “box office poison”. Now, New Zealand plays, particularly the comedies, are the money makers for the theatre. A fundamental business view is that just as Jack Spratt could eat no fat and his wife could eat no lean there will be some plays that some people will not want to see because they are too difficult or too trivial. On the whole it is necessary to put on plays that create a cash flow to support those that are not going to be profitable.

Non-profitable plays can have full houses, but the expense of staging them makes them not profitable. Shakespeare, for instance, demands large casts and often expensive staging, and a low seat price because particularly in a state-subsidised theatre it is important to have as many young people as possible. This means that there are school parties at $10 a seat. Where for Ladies’ Night the average seat price will be $25, for Shakespeare it will be $12, even though it is being played to full houses. A Roger Hall comedy will pay the debts from the Shakespeare.

Two standards

Another strong belief for Elric is that the theatre has two standards – one the literary and philosophic standard, and the other the performance standard.
“You read absurd academic comments which could come only from someone on a steady salary.” he said. “These comments show total ignorance of how theatres actually work. There is a literary/philosophic standard without doubt, and if one could choose, the programme would always include Shakespeare, Shaw and Chekhov – but the theatre would not exist any more! Even if the work is of a comparatively inferior quality the performance standard will be as high as for the great classics – the same care for diction, costume and set as would be devoted to The Three Sisters“.

One of the reasons for the success of the Court was that even if someone went there scorning the text, the quality of the production would be equivalent to doing Sophocles or some other play of that quality.

The two standards defined above must both be considered. The performance quality must always be there, but the literary standard is the sliding scale, and it is through the sliding scale of the philosophical approach that theatre survives on the swings and the roundabouts.

As a producer Elric says that while he is fiercely loyal to the performers outside the theatre he is ruthless in his criticism of them in rehearsal. If he thinks something is not up to standard he is extremely direct about it as is essential when time is so short for rehearsals. By maintaining the same performance standards throughout the programme for the light and the serious plays the Court Theatre built up a reputation for quality productions and the public’s confidence in the Theatre.

There has been a group of craftspeople at the Court who set for themselves exacting standards. The Court Theatre has produced many of the most distinguished technicians in the country. For costumes, scenery, properties and lighting the standards are not exceeded anywhere in the country.

Some schools now teach these crafts. Unitec trains people in these crafts, but most people learn on the job. Most apprentices come from performing arts departments.

Elric is confident about the future of the electrical side of the backstage work as lighting and sound are part of so many types of performance. What does concern him is the scenic and costume area where nearly everyone wants to be an artist before being trained in the craft.

The number of young people who cannot sew alarms him. There is an amazing amount of creative energy which is still unfocussed. They produce imaginative drawings, but have no idea how to make the garments they have depicted. There are no longer milliners in New Zealand, yet hats are so important in many plays. Poorly made costumes with wrinkled seams and a waistline which is not covered by the belt may not appear important, but even if people in the audience cannot analyse the problem it is registered subconsciously. Home dressmaking is less common and fewer young women are taught to sew by their mothers. People who can actually sew costumes properly are immensely valued.

Maintaining standards The problem of maintaining standards is found not only in New Zealand. Part of the problem is that so many people are now wanting to be involved in theatre. Where a hundred people would once have competed for a role there are now five hundred. The chance of people learning by experience gets less and less as the jobs become few and far between. Looking back over his years working in the theatre in England Elric realises that, while he retains vivid memories of the tension he felt when he was out of work, the periods between engagements were actually very short.

Forums Often when he had directed a play at the Court on the Sunday afternoon after opening night Elric would give a forum where he gave what I invariably found to be an illuminating talk about the play, its background, and the key facets of his direction of the production. He also answered questions from the audience. The purpose of the forums was to give people a background to the theatre, to give them an understanding of the evolution of the production and the reasons for certain decisions, and I always enjoyed the play more if I had first attended the forum.

Elric’s enthusiasm for knowledge “I love telling people about things. I love what I do so much that I want other people to love it too. I think that knowledge is so exciting. Every day I find out something new as I research for radio talks or for productions. Even revisiting old books, plays or topics there is something new to be found.”

Elric is extraordinarily busy with pressure on him to write his memoirs and to accept engagements directing plays in other centres in New Zealand. He would like to publish an anthology of his radio talks, particularly on musical subjects. He would like to continue directing and teaching. His retirement from his position as Director of the Court Theatre in Christchurch will probably mean that his work in New Zealand theatre will be more widely experienced, which can only be a bonus for other centres.