ACROSS the floor of Studio One of the Radio Centre in Donnybrook spins a flock of gaunt figures in long black dresses, their faces hidden by copious black veils. From behind a screen comes a gang of little people in lederhosen, wearing day glo green fright wigs, jostling for space with The Pobble Who Has No Toes, a barrel shaped creature covered in white fur. Upstage sits an old man with a long, wiry grey beard and an enormous belly at his feet, a young woman dressed in a marmalade tabby bodystocking sorts out her long fur tail and settles down to nap.
This zoo from the imagination of Edward Lear has come to life as part of a new musical which opens at the National Concert Hall tomorrow. Stuff And Nonsense is the work of the RTE Concert Orchestra's conductor, Proiansias O Duinn. He began work on the musical four years ago when Anne Makower, who also directs the new production, approached him with "the book". Before that, O Duinn's knowledge of the Victorian writer and painter was minimal.
"Now that I know more I feel a great sympathy for Lear. I think he suffered a lot. He suffered from the fact that he was one of 20 kids and was reared by his sister. He was an asthmatic, with spindly legs, who had a terrible complex about the size of his nose. His self respect was pretty low," says O Duinn, taking a short break as adjustments are made to some of the production's dozens of costumes.
"I think his low self esteem stopped him from making proper contact with people and for that reasons he was very lonely... and then, in the way that Marilyn Monroe always had problems getting serious roles, as soon as Lear's nonsense verses were successful it was difficult for him to have his serious work accepted."
As well as his many other problems, Lear suffered from epilepsy, which he referred to as "the demon". He also probably suffered from manic depression, resulting in sudden, profound mood swings, which in typical Lear fashion he referred to as "the Morbids". His only constant companion was his cat, Floss, to which Lear became so attached that he only had the will to survive a few months after its death in 1887.
So numerous were Lear's mental and physical afflictions that the decision to make a musical of his life hardly seems like an obvious one, at least if a peppy song and dance show were the aim. In Lear's nonsense verse and poetry, however, O Duinn suggests, it has been possible to find a suitable appealing narrative for the show. "The danger is that the story of his life is not always the most `up' story; it could all become a little Scandinavian if you weren't careful. But thanks to Lear's zany humour, there is lighter relief too.'
Bill Golding, as Lear, is charged with finding that zany humour, while assistance in absurdity comes from young ballet dancers from the Dex McGloughlin School, as the multicoloured creatures of his imagination. Music for all the performances will be provided by the RTE Concert Orchestra.
For the moment Stuff And Nonsense will have a limited number of performances but O Duinn has lofty ambitions for the piece. He could imagiae, he says, that eventually the musical might turn up in the West End, but his real hopes lie in another area: "It depends on money and luck and contacts, but I think it would make an excellent animated film, with a kind of Roger Rabbit interplay between real people and cartoons. I'd really love to see what a good animator could do with this story."
∙ Stuff And Nonsense has its gala opening at the NCH tomorrow at 8 p.m. There are two further performances next Sunday, a matinee at 3.15 p.m. and another show at 8 p.m. NCH telephone: (01) 671 1533.