Lewis Carroll's The Hunting Of The Snark might seem nonsensical, but beware: there is wisdom within. Veteran performer Warwick Broadhead discusses the Baker, Boojum, Bandersnatch and others with Shane Gilchrist.
At 66, Broadhead has performed a variety of material throughout New Zealand, sometimes in unusual venues, including forests, parks, railway stations, warehouses, boats and people's living rooms.
Described by the Listener as "a master of non-verbal shoestring theatre", he has also roamed widely, having spent time in Japan, Australia, Fiji, England, Africa, America, Mexico and the Arctic, pursuing passions that range from meditation to ecology to visual art and theatre.
At last count, he had performed The Hunting Of The Snark 505 times, although the manner of delivery has varied greatly. For the latest iteration, which he'll perform tonight at Allen Hall, Dunedin, Broadhead is adopting a stripped-back approach.
It's a double-bill show, also featuring Auckland-based dance artist and choreographer Cat Ruka, who will perform New Treaty Militia.
On the phone last week from his home on Waiheke Island, Broadhead said, although a spiritual teacher suggested he do The Snark "many years ago", it took him 10 years to get around to it, performing a solo show in 1995.
"I performed it 505 times, mainly in New Zealand but also around the world, then stopped doing it - not because I didn't like it - to see what options might be coming up next. Then last year I started having this fond feeling for it, so I pulled it out and have started doing it again.
"The biggest difference from the first show to the 505th one is I no longer use miniature dolls, which represented the characters. I'd made little figures out of Fimo and had lighting I took into people's homes as well as sound ... Those technical elements are gone, now. Everything came out of a suitcase, which became the stage, and audiences were limited to 20.
"Now it's just me you look at. It's really pared down. I have a costume that evokes a Victorian feel and I sometimes take bits of my costume and use those as props. It's very simple but I certainly make use of the area I'm in."
That simplicity of set places the emphasis more directly on performance and on the poem itself, Broadhead says.
"To me, it feels as if the poem is really being told. The words and story are clearer."
And there are many words.
The Hunting Of The Snark is the longest rhyming work by Carroll, whose most celebrated work is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865).
Published in 1876, The Hunting Of The Snark: An Agony in 8 Fits uses technically adept meter and rhyme and is divided into eight sections or "fits", comprising The Landing, The Bellman's Speech, The Baker's Tale, The Hunting, The Beaver's Lesson, The Barrister's Dream, The Banker's Fate and The Vanishing.
Mixing logical chains of events with largely nonsensical content, the plot involves, as its title suggests, a hunt.
Guided by the Bellman's map (a blank sheet of paper), a hunting party crosses the ocean to arrive in a strange land. The Baker recalls his uncle once warned him that caution was required for, "if a Snark is a Boojum, then you will vanish away, and never be met with again".
Along the way, the Butcher and Beaver become friends, the Barrister falls asleep and dreams of a court trial defended by the Snark, and the Banker loses his sanity after being attacked by a Bandersnatch.
At the end, the Baker calls out that he has found a Snark; but when the others arrive he has mysteriously disappeared.
"It is like a piece of nonsense at first - ridiculous," Broadhead says. "At first I didn't like it - I thought, 'what is this?' But then I got more and more into it and, now, it still keeps telling me things. I think there is wisdom behind the nonsense as well as wit and a commentary on the way we live.
"Many people asked Lewis Carroll, `what is a Snark?' and he was very reluctant to tell. Eventually, he told a few people he thought a Snark represented the pursuit of happiness. I would agree with that."
That pursuit of happiness resonates deeply with Broadhead who, in his curriculum vitae, refers to a "dramatic turn of events, a show-stopper" in 2002. In fact, what stopped him was a series of four heart attacks that year and a subsequent triple bypass.
"Oh, is that what I called it?" he laughs when reminded of his words. "My health is very good. I'm off all medication now.
"The heart attacks, while terrible, have been one of those blessings in disguise. I certainly am very glad I'm here. I'll be 67 shortly and I feel like I'm entering my contemplative years.
"Waiheke serves me well. I'm in a spinners and weavers group, a choir and several meditation groups. I'm now on the pension so I don't have to rush off anywhere. I love this time of my life. I feel many things are so much more exquisite."
See it
Warwick Broadhead will perform Lewis Carroll's The Hunting Of The Snark: An Agony in 8 Fits at Allen Hall, Dunedin, at 8pm tonight, followed by the South Island premiere of New Treaty Militia by Cat Ruka (with Josh Rutter).
