Fassbinder’s Cock Artist
Company: Foco Novo
Director: Roland Rees
Notes on the Foco Novo production at the Almost Free Theatre
‘Fassbinder’s play Cock Artist was given permission for performance to me directly over the phone from Munich in 1974 by his mother. It was the first of his plays to get theatre production in the UK. I believe it was the first production of any of his plays in the UK whatever the medium. But his mother was firm. No trips to London. He could not interrupt his work amongst the buzzing Bavarian film and TV studios of Munich in order to catch the 2nd or 3rd opening of one his earliest and most memorable plays, announcing as it did his prodigious talent, in order to visit the small black box of a theatre, tucked away in an International Language School off Piccadilly, which was where Cock Artist was opening. Called the Almost Free Theatre by Ed Berman of Inter-Action, it was the final of Ed’s string of lunchtime opening theatres. He garnered in his audience by barking the menu of the day through his megaphone. The names of John Arden, Mustapha Mutura, Ed Bullins and, of course, Ed Berman himself, echoed round the streets of Soho. Americans abounded, avoiding the war of South East Asia. The Almost Free was a splendid platform for up and coming playwrights, actors and directors and was certainly my theatrical entre. No money but plenty of contacts. In this case another Bavarian luminary, Kroetz came and enjoyed himself. Fassbinder’s mother didn’t come.’
Roland Rees 2010