By Gilbert Wong
Community and street theatre legend John Bolton is finally taking his autobiographical show, Shadows and Light, to the hometown of the woman to whom it is dedicated.
His wife, Lindy Marlow, grew up in Taupo - where the Lake Taupo Arts Festival 2000 is being held - and the pair have been back to visit family. But for Bolton, previous sojourns have been more about fishing or lazing by the lake than performance.
Bolton's season of Shadows and Light begins tonight at the Great Lake Centre Hall, where the audience will inevitably include friends and family. The seasoned actor and director is not nervous.
"I love Taupo and Lindy will be there," he says. "She is very much a part of what the show is about so I'm looking forward to a good night."
They met in 1977 when Bolton was cycling through the south of France, supporting himself by busking. Along the plush Riviera a good busker could then convince rich tourists to part with about $140 a day.
Marlow stopped to watch and dropped four francs into his hat. Perhaps sensing something, Bolton introduced himself. Soon he and Marlow continued their cycling holiday, this time together.
Marlow, a nurse, has no background in theatre or the arts but their relationship is one of the central threads of Shadows and Light - part- reverie, part-solo performance and part-homage to four decades spent with innovative street theatre groups like Theatre Workshop and the Traverse Theatre in Britain.
The performance also ranges through his wider life pursuits as a practitioner of Zen Buddhism with a deep interest in the writings of radical Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing.
When Shadows and Light came to Auckland in April last year, New Zealand Herald reviewer Andrew Bancroft found Bolton almost ego-less despite performing a work about his own life. The review noted Bolton's mastery of theatrical forms - masks, puppetry, song and clowning.
In the early 1980s the couple did once try to settle in Marlow's home country, living in Whangarei. But as the household grew to include their children, Bolton made a decision.
"The only way I could make a living in the theatre in New Zealand would have involved a lot of travelling. I didn't want to do that and be away from my family."
So the household relocated to Melbourne and established the John Bolton Theatre School, a regular stopping point for many New Zealand actors keen to know more of theatre's ancient traditions.
Marlow has stopped nursing and works for the Victorian government helping refugees from wartorn countries.
Though Bolton is no stranger to traditional theatre, the great part of his working life has been devoted to community and street performance.
The Watford-born performer trained under the master teacher Jacques Lecoq in Paris, learning the mask, mime and circus skills that free actors from the usual trappings of theatre companies and stages.
After seven years as a teacher Bolton has closed the theatre school. "I was working more and more as a director and performer and felt the need to return to performance."
One advantage of his years as a tutor is the network of former students who now feel free to offer their former tutor work.
"Yes, it's a bit of an old boy's network," he says. "We have our tie and special handshake."
Bolton is looking forward to working as a freelance director. For those with long memories, he plans to resurrect his one-man show this year. Titled Jumping Mouse, it is adapted from an American folk story.
But for now there is the more immediate satisfaction of telling his story in his adopted home town.
* Shadows and Light: John Bolton, directed by Christian Penny, tonight till Wednesday, Great Lake Centre Hall, Lake Taupo 2000 Arts Festival.
Lighting up the old home town
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