My Space - Heath Mcivor

The Age

Saturday March 22, 2008

Lindy Percival

Heath McIvor's arms are everywhere. As he speaks about his six-year relationship with the Polyglot Puppet Theatre, his hands dart in front of him, as though animating an invisible cast of puppets. It is here, inside a small theatre tucked away behind a church in leafy South Yarra, that McIvor's passion for puppetry has been nurtured. Today, rehearsals are under way for the adults-only Sammy J in the Forest of Dreams, written with comedian Sammy J for the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

Tell me about your involvement with Polyglot.

I started working with Polyglot in 2002. I work a lot with Polyglot on developing projects. They support their core artists by providing the theatre space for not much money. Most of my work with them is touring now; I do a lot of school tours, for three to six months of the year. They're very supportive of their artists. Sue Giles, the artistic director, directs a lot of the work and she has a very hands-on, fun, throw-yourself-in-there-and-go-for-it attitude. They do a lot of community work, with the commission flats, and refugees and stuff. They have a group of kids who come in and help develop shows. That collaborative style is ideal for me. In terms of this space, it means coming in and playing on the floor and working stuff out. You can do so much with puppets, and you can see it happening. Being able to create, on the floor with puppets, is great.

How important has Polyglot been in terms of your development?

Being paid to come and be creative and play in a structured kind of environment has been priceless in terms of my ability to come up with theatre really quickly. I've been involved in big shows. I did Walking with Dinosaurs, and working with that stuff was amazing - just a really cool job - I was doing mouth and eyes and all the noises, so I was up in the stands and the puppets were a long way away on stage, which is great fun, to think, I'm moving a thing that's the size of a building. But then to come back to Polyglot, and get your hands on the puppets - that to me, is more invigorating. So for at least a few months of the year, I come back to this space.

How important is it for Melbourne to have a place like this?

I think it's incredibly important . . . it has a real presence in the community, doing festivals and stuff. The key artists are all very open, and willing to cross art forms, whether it be puppetry or performance or music or whatever. They're willing to just jump in. It's a pleasure to be involved.

How differently do you inhabit the theatre space as a puppeteer as opposed to as a performer?

In Forest of Dreams, I'm completely hidden, so it's very mechanical a lot of the time. It's very chaotic, and you are always in weird, awkward positions, and so the way I work in that space is just to be very switched on and knowing where everything is. Because I'm obscured, it can feel a little bit separate from the audience. When you're performing, you have to be really engaged with the audience all the time but as a puppeteer there is safety in anonymity. You don't get over-exposed. If you're in a crap show but you're never seen, there is a safety net. You're not putting yourself on the line quite as much.

Tell me about the imaginary space you're creating in Forest of Dreams.

Sammy enters a magical portal in his kitchen cupboard, quite reluctantly, and goes into this forest, a magical enchanted forest with all these creatures. The king who rules the forest is an evil leader. Sammy J gets wind of this and tries to create an uprising and gets it all wrong. So the world we're trying to create is very simplistically set but things move at such a cracking pace that I think we set up quite a safe space for the audience to be fully engaged. There's a lot of colour and movement, the puppets are very funny and very silly.

During "roving performances" with Polyglot, how do you find the energy of the public space is changed by the appearance of the puppets?

A lot of people find it difficult to interact with puppets in their own environment. It can be quite confronting. It's almost like the front-row fear, some people don't want to look like an idiot by interacting with something that's not real. Successfully changing a space means having people interact with a puppet. If you're in a suit puppet, people often want to punch you or push you over. Everyone wants to kick Goofy in the shins at Disneyland.

What has been your greatest creative moment in this space?

Probably my first touring show with Polyglot, a show called Muckheap . . . we had to get the show up in three days and then go and perform it. That sort of chaotic but really fun stuff epitomises the work I usually do in this space . . . almost making yourself quite puppet-like, in that everything is very physical and exaggerated.

It's clearly a very happy space for you.

It really is. I've seen a lot of shows here and watched a lot of my peers perform in the space, and done creative development here, . . . so I've lived in this space a lot. I'm very comfortable here.

INTERVIEW: LINDY PERCIVAL

Sammy J in the Forest of Dreams, directed by Alan Brough, Bosco Theatre, Federation Square, until April 13.

comedyfestival.com.au

© 2008 The Age

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