Photos: Supplied.
For more than 20 years, Clint Bolster – clown, physical actor, producer and teaching artist – has been making Australian and international audiences laugh, think and feel.
Bringing a unique elegance and significance to the role of the clown with such creations as Booff, Bolster & Lee, The Bubble Canteen, The Mask Family, Manoeuvre, and Homunculus Theatre, Clint has forged resilience and laughter from an intensely painful childhood. His latest offering is The Lost Balloon, showing at RPAC on November 6.
A survivor of early violence and trauma, Clint credits school teachers with helping him to battle through the difficulties, reconnect to others, find the joy again – and to share the laughter with others.
“Through the clown characters I’ve created it’s as if I’ve found a way to give myself, as an adult, the childhood that I never had and a lot of my work is autobiographical,” he says.
“In primary school I didn’t feel that I fitted in; I was bullied a lot and all my friends were older people. The young Hero character in The Lost Balloon is about seven years old – he has no friends, he can’t connect with people, he feels like an outsider – then a lovely yellow balloon drifts into his life. Yellow is a symbol of hope and joy and friendship and for the first time ever he has somebody – the balloon is alive – who has befriended him and accepted him. Then a gust of wind
blows the balloon away and the chase is on.”
What follows is a string of encounters with folk who help him – and are helped by him. Accompanied by an original, soul-stirring musical score, the whole wonderful romp is played by masked characters and the emotional connections are unhampered by age differences, gender differences or language. Even though the characters are wearing full face masks and have no spoken words they communicate precisely through body language, feelings, instinct and music. Each encounter brings unexpected moments of humour, tenderness, and joy.
“Mask theatre connects directly to the heart and The Lost Balloon is an exploration of human connection; not judging others for being old or for being young or for being different. Its themes are universally understood, its characters are easy to identify with, and it reminds us that even the smallest acts of kindness can create ripples of change.”
For tickets to the RPAC show, go to www.rpac.com.au or phone (07) 3829 8131.
