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Interviews
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"I was an appalling, precocious brat of a fat child" Rivka Jacobson talks to Nick Ellis, creator of the multimedia musical Pirate Jenny Nick Ellis' humour is evident not only from the text of his multimedia musical but also from his emails. Those fortunate enough to have seen Pirate Jenny would have agreed at once that Nick is a character you would enjoy having at your dinner party. Unfortunately we did not have the opportunity to meet in person. However the following interview was made possible by modern technology… Nick Ellis was born in1947 in Ilford, Essex. His father had left school at 13 and became a booking clerk but was also a communist and pacifist. His mother was rescued from poverty in the Welsh valleys by the Quakers, who 'put' her into service. She was from a Russian Orthodox Jewish family who were chucked out of Russia in 1917. They lived in 'Jews Street', Brynmawr! Now, at 60 and as grandfather to Ernie, Nick spends many hours babysitting in between composing, writing and illustrating. The Inspiration for Pirate Jenny.It all begun in 1967 when he was 20 years old. He bought the album In My Life by Judi Collins, and soon realised that he would only need to take this one album with him on that wonderful fictitious Island. It introduced him to songwriters who would maintain their influence on him to the present day. It became the lighthouse for the young Ellis' life journey. The writers were Randy Newman (I think it's going to rain today), Peter White (The Marat Sade), Jacques Brel (La Columbe) and, of course Kurt Weill with Pirate Jenny. All these songs had wonderful Chamber arrangements by Joshua Rifkin. He played the tracks again and again - especially Pirate Jenny - and became quite obsessed by the song, so much so that it started a lifetime's interest in Brecht and Weill. No wonder it had this effect; Bob Dylan said in his autobiography Chronicles, that it was 'the best song ever written'. "The song also introduced me to the world of Brecht/Weill and, in 1967, I began to work in the genre, writing the music for Caucasian Chalk Circle at the Questors Theatre, in West London." Die Dreigroschenopera - The Threepenny Opera - was a revolutionary piece of musical theatre (not in fact an opera at all), adapted from an 18th century English Ballad Opera by John Gay The Beggars Opera. It was devised by Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill in collaboration with the translator Elisabeth Hauptmann. It premiered on 31st August, 1928, at Berlin's Schiffbauerdamm Theatre. Nearly every Brechtian Diva of the 20th Century has recorded or performed Pirate Jenny. Notable versions of the song are by Lotte Lenya (the original star of the show and eventually Kurt Weill's wife), Marianne Faithful, Nina Simone, Ute Lemper and of course Judi Collins. And so the story for Nick's musical Pirate Jenny is inspired by this iconic Brecht/Weill song. Strangely, it was never part of the original Threepenny Opera but was imported into the plot, just because it was such a wonderful piece. It has absolutely nothing to do with the overall plot! Jenny is MacHeath's favourite whore who escapes the clutches of the men in her life by becoming a Pirate Captain and ordering the mass murder of her tormenters. Your Pirate Jenny is a technically creative and original piece. Was that how you had originally conceived the project?"One of my principle motivations for producing Jenny was to utilise all my skills - writer, songwriter, artist, animator and even publicist - in one project, killing as many birds as possible with one stone! One aspect was to incorporate satirical cartoon animation with a blend of physical theatre, storytelling and music. (At the same time that Brecht was writing in Berlin the artist George Grosz was drawing darkly comic cartoons, satirizing the social conditions of pre-Nazi Germany. Undoubtedly he, and other artists of that period, influenced greatly the theatrical work that was going on during the emergence of the Nazi regime in the 1930's.) "At 59 years old, I left behind the commercial world of media and video to devote myself to the musical. However, I had begun to use this multimedia technique of using projection with music many years ago with performances of The Cambridge Evening Nuisance (a satirical sideswipe at cosy bourgeois life in a provincial city) which I performed personally. It continued in a number of musicals, notably Lola Zymer and Lola Zymer in Cabaret, produced for my singer/actress partner, Helen Cartwright. "But Pirate Jenny is my great love. Its first voyage was at the Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke, in 2000. In that production, the illustrations were put onto slides and we used four slide projectors playing on to two screens. On the opening night one of the projectors caught fire, sending the fire alarm frantic and the audience - in their finery and jewellery -scuttling into the car park! "I don't think that there is a theatrical precedent for this mix of animation and live action. But, as my friend and renowned old art director in the advertising business Keith Godman says, 'There's nothing new under the sun'. It wouldn't surprise me to know that someone has done something similar before, probably in France, where the two media of art theatre and film making are still so popular. In addition, Brecht often used graphics in his productions which delivered messages to the audience. These included both poster banners, projected slides and even 16mm film." Why did you use animation?"Firstly it can enhance the audience's visual experience, whether it uses photographic or cinematic imagery, or in my case, animated illustrations. "Secondly, it can be used as a didactic device, informing the audience of temporal or geographic locations and (as in Brecht's case) actually making propagandist points as the show develops. "Thirdly, it can save a fortune in stage flats!" How did the animation side of things work?"Animation has become integral to the piece. The process of producing this material is involved, tedious and lengthy. The illustrations are drawn and painted by hand, using 'underdrawings' on a light box, before being scanned into the computer and manipulated and enhanced in Adobe PhotoShop. These files are then pulled into Adobe AfterEffects and animated. In the case of the interactive elements, the voices are recorded in advance, and the animations synched and timed to work with the live action. AfterEffects has a fabulously simple facility for producing simple 3D scenes where you 'build' the set out of flat images, light it with a number of light types and then move around it using 'cameras'. "When you consider that Finding Nemo utilised the skills of many hundreds (800?) of artists/animators for the same amount of time, I am (modestly) pleased with what I was able to produce over six months." How did the actors manage to work with the cartoons?"Timing and interaction is the main issue of course. In a conversation between two people, the words 'bounce off' each other and the tone of the responses is also interdependent. You don't have that opportunity with cartoons and actors in a live performance; you just have to imagine the reaction times of the actors when preparing the sound track, and subsequently the visuals. Two other factors help. Firstly the AV operator has sophisticated control of the video and can put in tiny pauses, and experienced actors can dither on at the end of sentences until the cartoon character 'breaks in'." What was the greatest challenge incorporating the animation?"The problem of splitting the audience's attention, something I have encountered previously when producing graphics (and particularly animated graphics) for the theatre. The audience does not know what to look at when, and we are such a televisual culture that often the pictures win. This is not a good idea when illustrating a narrative. "In Pirate Jenny we rehearsed with the graphics from the very beginning, ensuring that both media promoted each other, creating a constantly-changing 'figure and ground'. The only disappointing thing from my point of view was that half of the animations (and months of my time) ended up on the metaphorical cutting room floor. But, as the Director kept telling me, 'the play's the thing'. "The use of (back) projected imagery in the theatre offers a number of benefits. Front projection is very tricky, as the actors throw shadows!" Were you always this innovative?"I was an appalling, precocious brat of a fat child. My poor (in both senses) parents had to cope with what to them was an intellectual foundling. Despite incredible poverty, they managed to find the money and energy to encourage both my musical and artistic traits. This meant buying me a clarinet (the equivalent of six months' wages for my father) and struggling through my insistence on reading Dickens to them at three years old. At the age of eight I used to sneak into a church hall to play the rattling old piano and used to 'make up' what I thought was classical music. "In 1959 I accompanied my father to the Aldermaston (Ban the Bomb) March where I was welcomed by Ken Colyer, the Father of the British Trad Revival, to play clarinet with his marching band. By the age of 13 I was playing clarinet and saxophone in pubs in the East End of London. "Then my parents made a dreadful mistake. In 1962 they moved to Barry, South Wales, which is the artistic anus of the universe. However, I joined a Rock group, dressing up as a pirate (is that where it all started?) as a tribute to my favourite band, the Pirates (who are still going). "When I was 17 I couldn't bear the violence, ignorance and boredom of Barry and so, forging my parents and my doctors' signature, managed to get hold of a passport. I left for a year or so hitch-hiking across Europe, busking with guitar to pay my way. "Then I returned to London and for three or four years worked in factories, hospitals and a bakery at the same time as becoming involved in theatre. I walked into Stratford East and was immediately welcomed by Joan Littlewood to join her odd community of local people, writers, musicians, actors and playwrights. There, I worked on graphics alongside Bill Tidy, the famous left-wing inventor of the Cloggies and so on. It is strange that at that age (about 23 I think) I just didn't realise how influential these people were and what an opportunity I missed when leaving! This remarkable stupidity occurred several years later when I met Samuel Beckett while delivering a roll of lino to his London pied-à-terre! "During half-hour breaks in the cafeteria of the bakery, I started drawing seriously, filling a sketchbook with Cezannesque pictures of my co-workers. At the same time I had joined the Questors Theatre in West London, where again I worked on programme and publicity material and managed to secure the 'commission' to write the music for Brecht's Caucasian Circle. This was featured on the Home Service (now Radio 2) of the BBC. "Around 1969 I turned up at Ealing Art College, a very special place, mostly for music! The Who, Bonzo Dog and Jethro Tull and many others had their genesis there. Naturally I co-founded a satirical rock band - Gnome Sweet Gnome - collected my grant cheque and took off for a tour of University campuses. We made one album - Songs from Suburbia - which disappeared immediately into obscurity. "And so it went on.... Over the years I have played in a number of musical contexts: bands, acoustic groups, all the while trying to write my own material." Do you have a favourite cartoonist?"This is very definitely George Grosz, who was working at the same time as Brecht and Weill in Weimar Berlin. Someone drew my attention to him after seeing my drawings. I simply couldn't believe it! Here was me in a previous life; as I leafed through a little book of his drawings, each picture was like an old friend, I knew them intimately. Strange..." Who are your favourite artists and why?"I don't make any distinctions between artists, writers, cartoonists, musicians, whatever. There are basic connections, politically, intellectually and emotionally, which transcend the media in which individuals work. In that spirit, I connect Beethoven - Weill - Brel - Zappa - Newman as kindred souls. I can sense the connections between them. "I guess, if pressed, my particular enthusiasm in the contemporary visual arts is for David Hockney, who always seems to come up with a fresh idea, whether he is designing stage sets, engaging in portraiture or taking photographs. His apparent multiplicity of styles and media belies a sensational craftsman." Where does family life fit in?Nick lives happily in Cambridge with his partner and actress Helen Cartwright, who has two children from her previous marriage, Samuel and Joshua. Nick is very close to his 34-year old son Bradford, from his previous marriage. "He is eerily similar to me, both physically and intellectually. He produces music and appears at concerts all over the world. (www.thenextmen.com). " His grandson Ernie (Brad's son), "treats me with diffidence yet acceptance." Do you have any other hobbies?"Stand-up. I have been experimenting with appearing in clubs without any kind of a script. It's a bit like a bungie jump every night, you never know what's going to happen. Then, of course, there is the day job. I have been lucky all my life in being able to earn money in advertising. design and multimedia with my basic skills. I also have a balsa wood model of a Sopwith Camel in my filing cabinet, which I am determined to build one day....." Your favourite playwright and why?"It has to be Beckett, rather than my apparent obsession with Brecht. This has nothing to do with our meeting. I saw Happy Days in 1974 and found someone who shared my philosophical views." What was your best moment?"At the age of 60 (my birthday was the get-in day at the Bridewell) and as an industry outsider, my best moment was seeing this theatre packed with (largely industry) people, laughing their socks off!" What are you currently working on?"I'm working on a video version of Dickens' Hard Times, an all-time favourite of mine, and utilising AfterEffects' 3D capabilities to 'build' the streets, school interiors and much more." (For more details of this, see: www.nickellis.co.uk/HardTimes) At the culmination of the current Pirate Jenny tour, he became eligible for his bus pass!
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