Local Events

Sir Ru Barb and the Green Wolf

The world premiere of urban folk opera, Tweedeleededeedee, Sir Ru Barb and the Green Wolf, comes to Birmingham Town Hall on December 6th, 2008. I talked to creator Paul Murphy about the piece, which, 40 years after it was first conceived, is still shrouded in mystery.

At a time of year when family outings to the theatre traditionally centre around Widow Twanky, pantomime horses and cries of, “It’s behind you!”, an urban folk opera about a lonely old knight who finds a foil wrapped mutant baby abandoned on the doorstep of his stately mansion by the sinister Green Wolf may seem a little unorthodox. It has, however, sparked wide interest.

Sir Ru Barb and the Green Wolf has been described as "a pantomime for the 21st century" by those who saw the preview performance, and is much talked about on Birmingham’s various creative arts blogs and websites. The accompanying animation and original storyboards can be seen online, and you can even listen to snippets of narration and music.

Paul Murphy: SJ O'Neill

40 years in the making

Nevertheless, decades after Sir Ru Barb made his first tentative outing in a back room of London’s Theatre District, the intriguingly named Tweedeleededeedee, Sir Ru Barb and the Green Wolf is still a mystery.

No one outside of the production knows the full story, or exactly what to expect from the live performance. It has been 40 years in the making, and after its Birmingham launch, its makers plan to take it on tour. Its flatpack set fits inside a transit van and folds out to a ten metre wide 3D structure, complete with tower and bridge.

The cautionary tale, set in the mythical Purple Kingdom, was first conceived by Paul Murphy shortly after his arrival in the UK from Belfast in 1966.

At the heart of the scene

As a young, impoverished songwriter, he divided his time between working in a laundry, sleeping on Van Morrison's floor and playing at London's Marquee Club to the likes of John Lee Hooker. He has, since that time, spent his life at the heart of the UK's music scene, and is even mentioned in Motorhead front man Lemmy's autobiography.

Paul is the kind of man you know has led an exciting life. The convoluted tales he weaves throughout his work, and the few stories he does tell about his own experiences, only make the listener hungry for more.

Sir Ru Barb: Paul Nocher

As founder and creative director of Birmingham based production company C21Vox, he has travelled all over the world, from South Korea to Ethiopia. C21Vox stands for 21st Century Voices, and runs "innovative projects combining new media & arts to encourage self-expression, putting people in the foreground of the production process."

Innovation

In 2003, C21Vox made the UK's first dual stream wireless live internet broadcast, from Birmingham's Centenary Square.

In May 2008, the Masefield Project launched a live linkup between delegates at the Media 4 Me conference in The Hague and a group of senior citizens from a Birmingham housing estate.

C21Vox have an online project archive going back to 1983, which is when they began facilitating productions for other people.

Sir Ru Barb and the Green Wolf, however, is a chance for Paul Murphy and his project manager, Valeria Rispo, to work on something for themselves: "We have left all that behind, and now we're on our journey to the Purple Kingdom. We've brought all that we've learnt with us, but the focal point is now, very clearly, our production."

An audience with The Purple King

It was in the guise of storyteller that Paul first brought Sir Ru Barb and the Green Wolf to life, when, accompanied by nothing but his guitar, he recounted a short story of the knight's meeting with the Purple King to an audience at the Arts Lab in Drury Lane in 1968.

Sir Ru Barb and the infant: Paul Nocher

So how is it that, forty years after this short acoustic set, Sir Ru Barb has become a full length production, complete with original music played by one of the UK's foremost Balkan gypsy bands, haunting animations by artist Paul Nocher, and a performance by Bev Lee Harling from the internationally acclaimed Medieval Baebes?

Paul Murphy takes up the story: "It's been 40 years in the making- I fell asleep after the second verse, woke up 39 years later and thought, Blimey man, two verses in? Better get moving!"

From Ireland to island

After the gig at Drury Lane, a theatre company from Northern Ireland asked Murphy to expand the short narrative for a stage performance, which went on to win first prize in a Northern Irish youth theatre competition in 1970.

From there, it went on to Lerwick in the Shetland Islands. It was not until two years later that Sir Ru Barb finally arrived in Birmingham.

Sir Ru Barb's tale is, in part, an incantational celebration of language. Murphy narrates the story in lilting, hypnotic tones, and he knows it all off by heart. An impromptu performance in his Kings Norton office has me pinned to my seat:

Sir Ru Barb's Mansion: Paul Nocher

"The wind hurled and twirled around the giant elm trees that lined the path to Sir Ru Barb's stately mansion. He sat alone watching the flames of the fire flicker and trickle in the chimney, sending arabesques racing across the far-off wall.

"All was silent but for the crackle of pine longs, the wisp of sap, the sparks as they raced and snapped in the open grate.

And he was awake, down over the harvest of the years' remembering."

Sir Ru Barb and Raleigh

This is how Sir Ru Barb's tale begins, and the opera tells that story. Murphy takes it up, to give us a taster of what to expect:

"One cold, stormy night, a wolf comes howling at Sir Ru Barb's door, and in the morning he finds a tiny mutant infant on his doorstep. The old knight is not really sure whether it's living or dead, human or otherwise, but when he sees it stir, he knows that the Green Wolf has brought it to him to care for.

Artwork by Paul Nocher

"He shelters the infant, keeping it close to the fire, and notices after a couple of weeks that its head begins to emerge from the silver foil. Now, this is material like Ru Barb has never encountered before. He notices that the fontanel- the soft tissue on the top of the baby's head- pulses as though it's trying to suck in heat and light from the fire.

A precious cure

"Ru Barb consults his ancient manuscripts and realises that this infant suffers from a thing called LDS- Light Deficiency Syndrome, which he recalls from his time in the Purple Kingdom.

"This is a place famous for its purple stone, which has the power to transform light into energy. Many of the miners who worked deep in the mines in the Purple Kingdom would have a little nugget of this stone around their neck, to energize them after hours of working in the darkness.

"From a nugget of this precious stone that the Purple King had presented to Sir Ru Barb as a farewell gift, from the richest seam in the kingdom, he chips off 18 equilateral triangles.

Destroyer Frank Moon: SJ O'Neill

"He creates a pyramid of stone, which he then inserts into the infant's fontanel. This miraculously saves its life, and he grows up to become Raleigh, the hero of our tale.

Metamorphosis

"Although his torso eventually grows out from the silver foil, the rest of Raleigh's body is locked inside it. It's onto this mass of metal that Sir Ru Barb attaches wheels, so Raleigh can function.

"Ru Barb creates all sorts of devices to aid Raleigh's mobility. He becomes very dextrous, as lines from the opera explain: 'He can somersault, trapeze and jump proportionately higher than a gang of urban fleas.'

"But Raleigh is fraught by confusion. People call him a mutant, but Ru Barb treats him like a son.

Artwork by Paul Nocher

"The story is about Raleigh's metamorphosis and his quest of acceptance. At one point, he proclaims to the audience, 'I knew nothing of my origins, who my parents were, or whether I had parents at all. But Sir Ru Barb was like a father to me, ever since that night when the Green Wolf came howling, and he found me abandoned on his doorstep. Had it not been for a similar cold and stormy night many years later, when the wolf returned, I might never have known.'

"So, although the story's called Tweedeleededeedee, Sir Ru Barb and the Green Wolf, in many ways it's Raleigh's story.”

21 years later, when the Green Wolf returns, the story begins in earnest, but Murphy insists, "You'll have to come along to watch the performance to find out what happens!"

Paul Nocher and The Destroyers

It was artist Paul Nocher's idea to turn Sir Ru Barb's tale into animation, as Murphy explains: "He came to my house in the summer. We had a fire in the garden with a few other people, and the soundtrack on the animation is what he recorded that night, in the garden, after a few pints. It was a bit mad, the other people who were there didn't quite know what to think!"

This is where the Destroyers came in. The Balkan gypsy outfit describe themselves as "A mix of recovering escapees from Birmingham Conservatoire and musical firebrands from the Midlands".

Destroyer Louis Robinson: SJ O'Neill

At a performance at the Wychwood Festival 2006, reviewed by Freq Magazine, The Destroyers were said to "banish the sedate atmosphere, and soon had the whole tent writhing and moving. Even the moths and the insects gathered round to see, through the steam rising from the music of the gypsies."

Murphy has collaborated with the 15 piece band for two years, acting as their front man in several performances, including their recent video, Out of Babel, which was filmed in Birmingham's historic Digbeth. He recently used his experience at C21Vox to help them launch their own channel on Youtube.

Tales from the coffin

Onstage, white-faced and zombie eyed, dusted with cobwebs and topped by a grubby red fez, Murphy reels off chilling vignettes to the tune of The Destroyers' insistent, raucous melodies.

During the band's recent collaboration with the Dhol Blasters at the Town Hall, he was carried on stage in a coffin for the song Glass Coffin Burial, and emerged screaming, "Let me out! Let me out!" to a stunned audience.

The Destroyers were in need of a new project to compliment their planned live tour, and from Nocher's animation of Sir Ru Barb sprang the idea for a fully fledged urban folk opera. Birmingham based composer Frank Moon, who also plays in The Destroyers, wrote the score, and it was his involvement with the Medieval Baebes that led Bev Lee Harling to sing the voice of the Green Wolf.

Destroyer Mark Davis: SJ O'Neill

With a hectic rehearsal schedule, and plans in place to take different versions of the performance on the road, 40 years after Sir Ru Barb was first described in the back room of a now defunct London venue, Paul Murphy and The Destroyers hope he will finally get the outing he truly deserves.

Next year, the opera will be performed at Bath Children's Literature Festival as part of a storytelling workshop, and there is talk of a promenade performance through the forest at Shambala 2009. It is anticipated that the opening performance on December 6th at the Town Hall is just the start of Sir Ru Barb's epic journey.

An alternative experience

Those who see the show are in for a moving experience, as Murphy explains: "It's actually a very uplifting tale of metamorphosis, exploring contemporary ethical issues. Do please bring tissues with you, because there are some emotional moments."

The audience will be encouraged to sing along, and a children's workshop beforehand will showcase the Destroyer's baffling array of instruments. Visit the website to see artwork and animation from the show, and to sample the music.

The Green Wolf: Paul Nocher

Sir Ru Barb's creators hope that its child friendly matinee premiere, cheap and cheerful ticket price- ranging from £2.50 for children to £12 for a family ticket- original live music, animation and a purpose built set will make Tweedeleededeedee, Sir Ru Barb and the Green Wolf a real alternative to the average family outing.

It has been conceived as a flexible platform for some of Birmingham's most vibrant talent. As Murphy explains, "Birmingham is a city that has a hunger to make its mark," and he hopes that Sir Ru Barb could be the man to do it.

Tweedeleededeedee, Sir Ru Barb and the Green Wolf premieres at Birmingham Town Hall on Saturday, December 6th at 12pm, with a children's workshop starting at 11am. For more information, click on the link below.