Whores and Lunatics
Two young disrobed women walk slowly through thick swirling smoke in time to music, hypnotic music. They stroll past a demented young man hanging high on a cross made of scaffolding and light bulbs. The two young women pass either side without a backward glance but they know that he is wearing a crown of torn flowers, and that his arms are outstretched a dove perched on each hand, he looks stricken as he watches the two women because he knows that they are temptation. They crouch down and start dressing very slowly, shabby laddered stockings, leather brassieres, down-at-heel shoes. The drone of the music continues as they finish dressing.
Doc Suicide, on studded six foot stilts wearing a black cloak, makes an entrance while firing a gun. His strides towering over everyone, he is tall enough to be face-to-face with the Ridiculous Man strung up high, suffering on his cross. The gun is offered to him, this man is determined to seek the truth, but can end it all now with one bullet. The smoke chugs out, the band plays and one of the young women sings ‘He was Despised’ while the other struts with maracas. The doves fly away as Meirav is singing. I have the maracas, Emil has the gun, Roderic is on the cross. Pete sings lead, Rod backing singer and guitar, John drums. Lighting by Dick Johnson, the vision is all Pip Simmons and it is arguably one of the best songs Chris Jordan ever wrote — CORRUPTION The vision is dark and we love it …..The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
Backstage photos of Dracula and Dream. They could easily be mistaken for the same show. Perfect travelling companion:, crucifixes and doves in both. Dracula — blasphemous, frenzied and provocative; The Dream — joyous, subtle and tender. We embrace both shows equally.
Aux Ateliers: Création du Rêve d’un Homme Ridicule – par le Pip Simmons Group
Le Figaro 27/4/77 Pip Simmons is in Lyon and has just performed at the Ateliers its latest creation ‘The Dream of a Ridiculous Man’. After the expressionistic beauty of An Die Musik’s scenes of torture and humiliation, here is a, joyous play, both poetic and burlesque. An ordinary man, awkward and self-conscious in his everyday life, frees himself from his frustrations in a transcendent dream. In a bizarre & exciting way the actor-musicians and singers lead us on an eighty minute journey, always mid-way between sensuality and gentleness, starting with salvation army sermons and ending with astoundingly provocative mystic visions to the sound of rock music. The moral of this subtle, absurd show is that the dreams of our society only result in chaos and confusion.
Libre Belgique, Brussels This production has a simplicity which is as fascinating as the invention that animates the evening and only the English could have created it. The French would have politicised the argument, intellectualised the parable, bowdlerised with logic the savage eruption of real life where nothing is ever defined or definitive.
Telegraf The secret of these young Britishers lies in their honesty, their directness and the intensity of their realisations
Olly waits patiently for the theatre to open.
The French and Belgians shower us with hospitality. After every first night, we are greeted with warmth and wine and nibbles and bonheur. One fine evening we had consumed so much of this lovely wine at the post show party, someone had the bright idea to do the show again on the stage for the hell of it, inebriated techies let us back in the theatre, we did the show again in the dark for them, a pie eyed alternative version ! how we got away with that isn’t on record. It was a blinder that took days to recover from ………….
sheila and Chris warm up backstage-Caen
Touring is still a novelty, we are a young group, silly pranks keep us going when boredom sets in. Music plays most of the time on the cassette machine, if Rod doesn’t like the music whilst he’s driving, he grabs the cassette and chucks it out of the window, this happens often. Dick likes Jackson Brown, we all hate Jackson Brown, out of the window, Dick sulks and writes a letter home to his girlfriend on entire Rizzla packet of white roll up paper. Newspapers are all over the place, Chris goes to any central station to see if we are lucky enough to get an English newspaper, the ash tray is full to overflowing, Rod Dick, John smoke the rest of us don’t. Everyone wants to sit in the double seat at the front, we take it in turns. John and I in a bored idle moment decide to swap clothes for a bet, the van is on the move along the autobahn whilst we giggle and struggle out of our outfits, John wears my girly red dress and bra all day, even when we go in to the autobahn cafe; he looks better in it then I do. I wear John’s tight punk jeans and waistcoat, he’s such a smart dresser !
I’m lucky I have no one at home I’m missing, not so easy for anyone leaving wive’s and sweethearts back at home, you can spot the signs … moody blues settle, silence not mixing, going it alone, tempers fray, a huge argument then erupts in the van when someone doesn’t want to hear the same music again, sulks all round, Roderic goes straight to his hotel room rather than eat and drink with us after one of these long autobahn journeys, he’s missing his girlfriend badly, it can last for days but then blows over, sulks come and go, full blown bad feelings are rare.
John and Dick back of van
The best time is doing the show, thats the reason we are here, but shows get cancelled, we make the best of it. French food and wine are too good to ignore. Breakfasts are croissants and homemade apricot jam with hot milky coffee while sitting under the apricot trees that provide the jam. If it’s a travel day, a stop at a ‘routière’ and usually wine and dine in the evening, unless its show night. Mobile phones not invented, email not invented, text messages not invented, Insta-Twitter-Facebook not invented. We have letters, postcards and the occasional expensive phone call home. A tour can be 6 months. We have stops along the way. We go home for Christmas. We visit zoos caves and churches, I look forward to buying postcards to send back home. I have my distractions taking photos, I travel with a bunch of show off’s who like to be in front of a camera happy to provide snippy snappy moments. I have to wait till I get get home to see if the photos turn out okay. I have an Olympus trip 35 mm point and shoot, and later Nikon L35 compact. On a long tour, I can take up to 10 rolls of films and once lost 5 spools. I was sick with grief, still am.
Drac 3 and Dream are a wonderful combo to tour side by side. We inhabit these shows and between us inhabit whores, vampires, doctors, bats, professors, lunatics, strippers, little girls, old men, priests, Tahitians, trapezists, shifty tramps and more. Rod has the big black cape in Dracula, Emil has the big black cape in Dream. The band play, the little girl cries, the vampires scream and during the day we load the van drive to the next venue ready to do it again.
Photos and Blog © Sheila Burnett