Show encourages audience to relax

Joseph Sharplin in theatre show The Resting Show. Photo / Supplied

The Resting Show may be Warwick Broadhead's first public theatre production in a decade but the practitioner extraordinaire does not want it to be a non-stop assault on the senses.

Instead, he wants audience members to contemplate and reflect on what is unfolding so he has inserted regular rest breaks - ranging from a few seconds to five minutes.

Based on US author Zane Grey's 1935 Western novel Thunder Mountain, and interwoven with the poetry of 13th century Persian mystic Rumi, Broadhead describes The Resting Show as a contemporary morality tale of miners, gold and the destructiveness of greed.

Given today's economic climate, it may seem timely but the idea was conceived nearly seven years ago. Broadhead, one of the country's most innovative theatre directors, was recovering from a series of heart attacks and a triple bypass operation.

Convalescing in Masterton in 2002, he heard a rousing piece of music, possibly Vivaldi, on the radio. A trained dancer, Broadhead got up to move to the music.

"But I was still recovering so I kept having to stop and rest," he says. "I would dance and rest, dance and rest. As this went on I became aware I was hearing the music more deeply and my reactions to it were changing because of this. I began to think it would be wonderful to explore how resting during a performance would change audience perceptions of a show."

About the same time, a friend recommended Thunder Mountain. Broadhead had never read a Western but with little else to do than rest he decided to flick through it. Grey set Thunder Mountain during the American gold rush but Broadhead says the writing reflected the author's interest in nature.

"I was captivated by the descriptions," says Broadhead, who has been on ecological study tours to places such as Alaska, southern Africa and Australia. "I believe nature to be the true church and for me, that's when I am most at peace and when I feel a presence."

He returned to the project he had been working on, performing Lewis Carroll's poem The Hunting of the Snark in private homes here and internationally. From 1995 to 2004, he performed Snark 505 times for an estimated 12,000 people.

His idea for "a resting show" grew and developed. He wanted it to be a grand production similar to the large-scale ones he created in the 1980s and 90s. In 2000, he was artistic director for Auckland's Hero Parade.

He wanted to work with people who had limited or no acting experience and advertised extensively, gathering a 20-strong cast which includes men and women, aged from their teens to their 70s. Included is his nephew, Joseph Sharplin (pictured).

The men play the miners while the female characters "echo" throughout, reminding the audience of life away from the chaotic goldfields. "They are felt but not really there."

It may seem incongruous to marry a Western-themed morality tale with an Eastern mystic's poetry but Broadhead says the two blend seamlessly. When the characters start to recite Rumi, it signals that it is time for audience and cast to rest.

"An actor makes an entrance which should entrance - meaning to captivate - and that is what I want to achieve. I want people to rest in the appropriate sections and let the experience deepen."

Performance

What: The Resting Show

Where and when: Corban Estate Arts Centre, 426 Great North Rd, Henderson, April 16 to May 3.