THE MAN WHO PLANTED TREES To 31 August.

Tour.

THE MAN WHO PLANTED TREES
by Richard Medrington and Rick Conte..
Runs 1hr No interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 April at Unicorn Theatre London.

Could become an environmental puppet classic.
Puppet State Theatre’s play, performed by two men and a dog, is fast becoming a hardy perennial. The dog, incidentally, keeps referring to his own puppet state, wondering about the man who’s always behind him, following wherever he goes. And there are some theatrical in-references that might seem over-sophisticated for an intended 7+ audience.

But there’s a similarly convoluted back-story here. Elzeard Bouffier, the man who planted trees in barren French land, was invented by Jean Giono for a magazine story in the 1950s. There days its documentary-style invention wouldn’t raise many eyebrows an excessive distance, but back then Giono’s presentation of fiction as apparent fact caused publishing-world dismay.

Fact or not (just how much bluff was involved has been debated), the story is simple. Elzeard, whom the narrator meets by chance after World War I, goes around planting acorns because he believes it’s right and important for him to do so. And, in its most serious moment, the show celebrates the long-term outcome, of an environment made fruitful and self-replenishing, in contrast to the usual pattern of exploitation that lays places waste.

Little Elzeard, old and growing older while remaining ruggedly active (enduring like an R S Thomas Welsh peasant, or in the unconsciously determined manner of the farming brothers who open Raymond Depardon’s film Modern Life), is a diminutive puppet, as is the dog who seemingly grow older by his side.

Running between sections of Giono’s gentle story is camp patter between the puppeteers (though Rick Conte generally plays straight-man to Richard Medringham’s voiced canine), with a comedy that brings its own environmental awareness as lavender scent and then water are wafted or squirted over the audience.

Though I found this mix of smart-chat and the simple story sat uneasily together, young minds may well find the release and humour of the one focus attention on the Giono sections, and there’s a free-flow of time as Conte suddenly moves from modern times to his walk through France post-Great War, which matches the stylistic mix. I suspect these Trees will continue to be planted for some time to come.

Jean: Richard Medrington.
Colleague: Rick Conte.

Director/Designer/Puppets: Ailie Cohen.
Sound: Barney Strachan.

2009-04-26 23:15:24