Company name: Mouth and Trousers Theatre Company
Founders: Three-person collective consisting of Lesley Ferris: Artistic Director and Administrator, Jan Dalley: Designer and Writer and Brian Rotman: Technician and Writer.
Established: June 1979
Reason: Personally the Founders wanted to see small-scale work being done and it was the height of the pub theatre movement. They wanted to be part of the bigger discussion. In an interview from The Stage on October 25th, 1979 Lesley Ferris said, ‘West End theatre is dying – good pub theatre at one-quarter the price of the West End is what we plan to provide. We will offer more challenging and interesting productions than the large commercial theatres dare attempt. The London Fringe keeps theatre alive by taking risks.’
Current status: Disbanded in late 1983, early 1984, after their venue, the York and Albany pub, closed down.
Area of Work: New writing
Policy: The aims and objectives of the company:
a) to promote theatre experimentation and encourage the use of non-naturalistic acting with masks, puppets and mime alongside written text
b) to encourage new writing for the theatre that attempts to break out of prevailing naturalism
c) to provide workshops for actors, directors and playwrights to discuss and review new material
d) to continue running the present venue, the York and Albany Theatre, in order to (i) support new theatre companies by giving them the opportunity to premiere new work (ii) support playwrights by providing ‘New Writing Showcases’ on a regular basis
Structure: Collaborative, all decisions made equally between the three Founders. This included artistic policy, administrative policy, invitations to visiting companies, selecting scripts to be performed and budgeting expenses.
Based: York and Albany pub, 129 Parkway, NW1 in Camden.
Funding: Funding from a variety of sources. The first few productions were funded by the Founders. Lesley Ferris worked as a temp to help start company. No permanent funding. Grants from Camden, a building grant for raked seating to increase audience capacity. Grants for new writing showcases. Some funding from Greater London Arts Association. Arts Council of Great Britain gave a new playwrighting award to Lesley Ferris to develop Subjugation of the Dragon; the award came with a modest stipend. All shows produced on a profit sharing basis. For every production the company received some ‘profit’ but it varied widely.
Performance venues: Main venue: The York and Albany Pub, Camden. Also performed at the Head Theatre (Putney), Theatre Space Covent Garden, Jackson’s Lane Community Centre and in Cambridge. Harlequin was also invited to a school in Cambridge and in January 1980 to be part of the London Mime Festival at Battersea Arts Centre.
Audiences: Very mixed. Depended on the show. Camden community of theatre-goers. When Julia Pascal’s work Soldiers was at the York & Albany there were many young working class Irish. Sometimes a predominantly women’s audience if the show was women focused. Attendance was generally strong.
Company work and process: The first play at Mouth and Trousers’ permanent venue, The York and Albany, was The Maids by Genet. The company wanted to open with a well-known experimental play that offered some great women’s roles. The Maids was their first production to use all women, and the characters created alter-egos that were dolls (made by the two actors that played the roles) that resembled their human counterparts. At the top of the show, the Maids gave birth to the dolls and these figures were used throughout to designate the ritual make-believe of the two women. The work was characterised by physicalised and ritualised action through these puppet-dolls.
This was followed by Death of Harlequin by Leslie Ferris which looked at the comedy and history of Italian commedia del’ arte and was developed as a physical theatre/mask piece. Real slapsticks were made.
New writing, physical theatre and mime work led the collaborative discussions between Lesley Ferris, Brian Rotman and Jan Dalley. Rehearsals were very creative and open, drawing on the actors’ expertise. Rehearsals were usually a month long, working around people’s schedules as actors had other jobs.
Their New Writing Showcases presented three new plays each and three Showcases were presented over the company’s history. Different directors were brought in for each play included in the showcase and they were all workshopped as part of the development process.
Although the term was not used at the time, one of the shows by Lesley Ferris could be called ‘devised’. In The Subjugation of the Dragon rehearsals each of the three actresses created a monologue based on their own experiences. Rehearsals used a very interactive, process-based system.
Personal appraisal & thoughts:
Lesley Ferris: ‘The late 70s and early 80s was a very rich time to work in theatre. There was a lot of press on the fringe movement at the time. A lot of mime and comic and political humour pervaded the theatre scene. One strategy was to highlight the work of women. Women’s Theatre Group had just started up and there were several organisations, like ‘Women Live’. Women were not getting recognition for their work and very few women playwrights and directors were being produced. Very little women’s work was taking place in the mainstream so it was very important for small-scale theatre to provide opportunities for women directors and playwrights, because if they didn’t do it, who would? But also, it gave a richness to our work and some kind of political vision that there needs to be some kind of parity for women’s theatre artists considering that throughout history it’s been a totally male dominated art form.’
Reviews:
The Subjugation of the Dragon
‘Women in legend do nothing but wail and warn, Lesley Ferris protests: her neatly-conceived comic experiment links the origin of female oppression with the origin of Drama itself, in myth and ritual, and uses the experiences of actresses to amplify the frustrations of women…Some of the ‘experimental’ dialogue seemed just the translation into metaphor of a naturalistic discourse, without independent dramatic meaning; but the play is most enjoyable for its effortless, insightful humour and a perfectly-paced performance of obvious collaborative harmony.’ (Philomena Muinzer, Time Out)
Gogol’s ‘The Nose’
‘In this atmospheric and entertaining adaptation, Mouth & Trousers elaborate and visually illustrate Gogol’s short story… The versatile company create absurd and complex scenarios practically from thin air and evoke effectively the bizarre and nightmarish quality of the story.’ (Gillian Hetherington, Time Out)
Death of Harlequin
‘Death of Harlequin is a compilation by Lesley Ferris which comes over as immensely enjoyable and authentic – the two are all too often self-cancelling… Very imaginatively staged and exceedingly well moved, this one act play could well be expanded by a second half taking the saga on to make a whole evening’s entertainment.’ (Anne Morley-Priestman, The Stage)
Productions: [table id=58 /]
Interviewee reference: Lesley Ferris
Acknowledgements: This page was written and constructed by Phoebe Ferris-Rotman with the help of Lesley Ferris (Mouth and Trousers co-founder). November 2013
This page was created with support from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund.