History
The Primitives - An Introduction
Gordon Wilson and Craig Weston. Both studied theatre at the “L’Ecole Internationale du Theatre Mime Mouvement” of Jacques Lecoq in Paris. In 1991 the two met each otheronce again, this time in Belgium. They worked together in the production ANTIGONE, a contemporary opera, (1991) created and performed by Ensemble Leporello. This collaboration continued in three productions of Leporello, and meanwhile plans unfolded for the begin of a new theatre company in which they could explore their shared vision of theatre and what it can be. In 1995 The Priimitives were born.
The company began out of a desire to work and perform outside of the boundaries of the traditional theatre circuit. The Primitives started out in search of a theater-form which spoke to a wider audience than the theater elite. This search lead the company to create productions that played not only in established theatres, but also in community and youth centres. And this search led them as well to their natural habitat: the street.
Now, more than ten years later, 9 original productions for theater and the street have played in every land of Europe, as well as North America, Israel and Palestine, Australia, Korea, and Japan. In all their plans for the future, The Primitives remain obsessed with the challenge of bringing suspense, humor, emotion and beauty to the widest possible audience the world over.
A Theatre Language in three parts:
Painful Humor-
During their formative years with Jacques Lecoq in Paris, the Primitives came in contact for the first time with the world of ‘the clown’. Humor based on human imperfection. Aplaying style which demands complete ‘here and now’ from the performer. The universality of the poor guy who in spite of all the bruises never loses his belief in the world, life and himself.
This early work became one of the columns upon which the work of the the company was built. In productions by the Primitives you won’t find red noses, enormous shoes or flowers that spurt water, and yet a deeper ‘clownesque’ remains one of the main ingredients in their work. With humor based on the situation rather than the joke. Humor based on the natural hierarchy between characters. Bosses and lackeys. Arrogance brought low. The guy on the bottom who somehow manages to succeed. Unlikey losers and unlikely winners: ingreients for endless pleasure.
Music
Music is the second foundation stone on which the company is built. Craig Weston came to the theatre after originally studying as musician and composer, and both of the founders of the Primitives share a fascination and love of music and all it has to offer to the theatre. Their music is sung, chanted, rapped and pounded out. The plays as well are ‘composed’ with great attention to the musicality: the interior rhythm of a character, the percussive qualities of a dialogue or the value of a well-placed silence. This approach to the performance as a piece of music has become of the most recognizable qualities in the work of the company.
Theater as meetingplace
The third foundation stone of the Primitives is the search for a form of theatre that brings people together. In the present climate of social isolation, fashion, class inequality, political polarity, rising nationalism and a general malaise of “every man (and woman) for themself”, the company strives for a theatre that emphasises the things we have in common. The Primitives work from recognizable situations and characters. They hope that their work, in theaters and in the street, functions as a catalyzer for improbable meetings. Which are the qualities we share rather than the ones that drive us apart?
Since the Primitives’ first production, UP, human relationships and universal themes are at the core of their work. Fathers and Sons. Cooking, washing, cleaning up and being “pure”. Mothers and love. The company strives toward performances with the power to move an audience from all walks of life. For these reasons, the Primitives have developed a seemingly simple playining style. Very physical. Plays full of humor and emotion. Stories which follow a clear emotional line independent of the text. Costumes, props and decor are reduced to the very most essential, since in their theatrical universe tempo, rhythm, and musicality in sound and play are the driving force.
The Primitives continue to shamelessly strive, while avoiding the pitfalls of ‘populism, for their own brand of very popular theatre.
Working Method
With the Primitives, the task of creating a new piece can best be compared to that of a tailor who works for an extremely demanding client. It is not unusual to launch a first version of a play, and then, drawing conclusions from the playing experience, to radically alter the play before a second run. In spite of a successful first season, the company remained personally unsatisfied with the first street version of “WASH IT”. During the winter months they totally rewrote the piece, with new characters and a completely new dramaturgical given!
A play begins to live and grow from the first confrontation with an audience: this axiom is doubly true for work in the street. It’s a challenge to maintain a critical eye while experiencing the joy and freedom of playing in the street, but it is an essential part of the creative process, insuring that the play, when fully mature, offers the very best that the actor-creators have to give.
The company’s relationship with spoken text is also part of that critical process. The Primitives don’t hesitat to speak when necessary, (at times in musical cascades of text,) but the spoken word is always approached as a vehicle. The text is never the backbone of a play. It functions as music and gives the audience a foothold for travelling together with the actors on the “journey” of the play.
The international reputation enjoyed by the company demands that their street plays remain accessible for a multicultural audience. This challenge has led to different solutions in each of the pieces to date. “HARK” and “T” are plays without language, where music and image speak for themselves. For “COOK IT” and “WASH IT” the company devised it’s own “multi-lingua”, a mish-mash of languages in which the key words of the play were always translated into the mother tongue of the audience. With “SWAN LAKE” it was decided that one character would translate the story telling interjections of his boss into the language of the audience. In each of these instances, it has been the dramaturgical given, the story and the characters that made the final language choice self-evident.
Making plays for both theatre and the street was a choice that grew organically. During the rehearsal process for “UP”, the first production of the Primitives, an entire catalogue of musical material never made it into the final production. These “leftovers” seemed more appropriate for the street, and formed the basis for “HARK”. In the end both pieces were born out of the same rehearsal process.
For the two following productions, “COOK IT “ and “WASH IT”, the company opted to create theatre and street versions of the same given. It remains the material itself which ascertains its end destination. From the moment it was apparent that a van would be the basic decor for “SWAN LAKE”, the choice for the street was an obvious one!
The company cherishes it’s identity: unsubsidised, stubborn makers who continue to frequent the theatre and the street. A path they intend to continue following in the years to come.
