Robotic Love Finds New Dimensions from Page to Stage
Nufonia Must Fall - Adelaide Festival of Arts 2015
When well-known Canadian turntablist, music producer and graphic novelist Kid Koala (real name Eric San) wrote music that he hoped people would listen to while they read his graphic novel Nufonia Must Fall, he had no idea he was already on the path towards creating the novel’s next incantation. The book eventually morphed into the entrancing multidisciplinary puppet, film and music event of the same name and Kid Koala’s production graces the Adelaide Festival this year.
Nufonia Must Fall is a story about a lovelorn robot that tries to woo a human woman, Malorie, with love songs he has written. Sadly, the robot cannot sing.
Eric San/ Kid Koala has been a lover of drawing, live music and of silent films since childhood and he told me recently, ‘When I was writing Nufonia Must Fall I kind of felt it was a screenplay to a lost silent film. It read that way in that there was no dialogue free and the story unfolded through the actions that were drawn in each panel.’
San said the book was greatly influenced by the films of Charlie Chaplin and Jim Henson's Muppet Show. ‘I grew up watching their films and shows and have always adored their work,’ he said. ‘When I turned the manuscript in to the publisher in 2003, they thought it would be nice to include a musical component with the book and so I began to record what would end up being a small collection of underscores for key scenes in the book, on piano and turntable. Every copy of the book included this soundtrack…so ever since the book was released it always had both a visual and musical side.’
I asked San how silent film, puppetry, theatre and music eventually came together to bring his novel to life in multidimensional form and also if there were alternatives he examined and dismissed while deciding on the disciplines to be utilised in the show.
‘Fast forward ten years,’ said San. ‘I found myself talking to KK Barrett, who has been an integral part of many of my favourite films over the last fifteen years. We talked about a possible collaboration and how it would work. We thought about ways we could fuse his experience with cinema and my work in live music. When I sent him a copy of Nufonia we realised it could be something that could work as a stage production of sorts. I was so excited when he agreed that he would direct the piece.’
San and Oscar-nominated Barrett (Spike Jonze’s Her and Where the Wild Things Are) at first discussed ideas of presenting the story in life size with the main characters being actors. The protagonist would be an actor wearing a full robot suit.
‘We decided against it,’ explained San, ‘because it would be too unwieldy to travel at such a scale and we would be limited as to how many life size sets we could build from the original book. We thought if we did it as a live performed and projected experience, it would maintain all the urgency of a live concert or theatre piece but could take advantage of the cinematic experience on the screen. It enabled KK and AJ Korkidakis (our cinematographer) to utilise that film language for the story on the screen by using the same techniques in lighting, rack focusing, cranes, camera dollys and tracks etc; the same equipment they would use on a film, just at a smaller and more transportable scale. This greatly helps our ability to tour the piece.’
San also met Adrian Fung of Afiara Quartet who wanted to collaborate with him on a project that could bridge their work in classical chamber music with San’s film score and/or electronic work.
‘Coincidentally, a few months later I was introduced to Felix Boisvert, Karina Bleau, and Clea Minaker,’ said San, ‘all of whom had their own little empires in the puppetry scene in Montreal and over a few conversations we all agreed that a live version of Nufonia Must Fall could be a wonderful meeting of each of our crafts. They introduced me to Patrick Martell who would become our head puppet designer. And while I was in London on tour I met Ben Gerlis who was a perfect choice to design the sets for the piece with his experience in building miniature worlds in the stop motion animation world. Finally, I brought in my long time collaborator Vid Cousins to write the string arrangements as well as do some live foley during each performance.’
The result of this coming together of diverse talent is the live Nufonia Must Fall, a unique artistic event in which a team of puppeteers bring the graphic book’s characters to life on miniature sets, all the while being filmed and projected on to a cinema screen. At the same time, Kid Koala and the Afiara String Quartet perform the original score for the show on a Wurlitzer organ, string instruments and multiple turntables.
The project has been co-commissioned by the Luminato Festival, Adelaide Festival, Banff Centre, Internationales Sommerfestival Hamburg, Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival Groningen and Roundhouse.
In addition to his graphics skills, Eric San is a musician and turntablist and has been using the Kid Koala moniker for his performance since 1995, although the ‘Koala’ aspect has no connection with Australia. Its origin is a story in its own right and probably for another time. Suffice to say Kid Koala is a major DJ and composer and right now his focus is on the multidisciplinary entity that his graphic book has become.
‘Maybe it was just good timing,’ San said in conclusion to his explanation of how his, or rather, Kid Koala’s, original book has become a live performance, ‘but there weren't any difficult choices to make when we put this production together. The team kind of formed very naturally. I'm in total awe of all of their talents and it's very much like a dream job for me. The show is an absolute joy to perform and we can't wait to present it at Adelaide Festival this year.’
‘Nufonia Must Fall Live was a major triumph for these artists…,’ commented Fast Forward Weekly in a review, ‘…proof that they’ll be evolving art forms and blowing minds for years to come.’
Directed and designed by Oscar nominee KK Barrett, the Australian Premiere of Kid Koala’s entrancing evolutionary exercise is exclusive to Adelaide, a very lucky city indeed.
Lesley Reed
Where: Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre.
When: Wednesday March 4-Friday March 6, 7pm; Saturday 7th March- 2pm and 7 pm. I hour; no interval. Family friendly; age 8+ years.
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au or BASS 131 246.
Images by AJ Korkidakis.
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