It’s New Years Day, 2012.
This time last year, I was holidaying in Maryochydore (as I am now) and riding daily from the coast up the mighty hill to Buderim. At the top of the hill in Buderim, I discovered a shop boasting Flash-Trash and Antiques.
Flashtrash Antiques
At the time, my head was filled with thoughts about the creative possibilities of a new work we’d just begun called A Lion in the Night, inspired by the themes and ideas of a Pamela Allen book of the same name.
Eliza Lovell as Angelie in the creative development for A Lion in the Night
Our performance conceit involved a character, Theo, who wakes into a dream where every physical element has significance for him within some memory from his life.
We had collected randomly, a range of aesthetically beguiling objects, which included an old cupboard, a tin bath, a rocking chair, a revox tape recorder, a standard lamp, a clothes horse, a tray mobile, a cot and a variety of interesting oddments like a meat grinder and an old radar from a yacht.
With these objects arranged in the rehearsal space, we invited our performers to play.
Through tasks, improvisations, provocations and explorations, set with in the “frame” of Pamela Allen’s story and the themes it suggested, the performers created the world of Theo and Angelie.
So, this explains why I became excited by the Flash-Trash and Antique shop in Buderim one year ago. My antennas were up for interesting objects. When I ventured in, I was delighted to see lots of beautiful oddments but none more beguiling than a beautifully maintained WW2 Airforce Pilots headgear. (I’m not even sure what to call it) It had been brought into the shop by a local Buderim man in his 90′s. He was a British pilot during World War 2 and he hoped his cherished piece of memorabilia would find a good home. It did.
Rory Walker as Theo in the creative development of A Lion in the Night
I look forward to revisiting the shop when it re-opens on Jan 3 … yes … to discover more treasures but also to ask if the gentleman, who owned the pilots headgear is still alive.
I’d like him to know that his beautifully maintained piece of memorabilia is seeing a new life in a richly imaginative theatre production for 4-8 year old children… 65 years beyond his time of wearing it in the very different theatre of war.
Dave Brown – Artistic Director
Patch Theatre Company – keeping the artist alive in the child
