THE MARVELLOUS CORRICKS
Presented in the Arts Centre Great Hall, 19 April 2010

‘The Marvellous Corricks’ was presented by Te Puna Toi with partners The New Zealand Film Archive and in association with the National Film and Sound Archive Australia (who lent the films from its collection), the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Arts Centre. Free Theatre Christchurch provided performances for the event.

The event centred around silent films collected by The Marvellous Corricks, a Christchurch family who toured Australia, India and the UK with their popular vaudeville show. The Corricks’ show included the presentation of films they had collected from Europe. These films represent some of the earliest examples of cinema – including films from Pathe and Gaumont and the first ever animated British film – and as such offer an intriguing insight into the experimentation taking place in cinema’s early days before conventional narrative cinema became dominant. Presented, as they were, in a theatrical context and considering that film in its early days initially looked to theatrical conventions, the films are an interesting insight into the theatricality of film and may inspire similar experimentation now – a chief aim of Te Puna Toi.

In keeping with Te Puna Toi’s commitment to performance research, this event went beyond a nostalgic showing of quaint, old films to invoke a taste of the original vaudeville shows by presenting the films as a performance in collaboration with Free Theatre Christchurch and involving many Theatre & Film Studies staff and students. Te Puna Toi Director Peter Falkenberg structured the event to include old music hall songs and narration for the films. It was emceed by Richard Till with musical accompaniment and arrangement from Chris Reddington on piano and Emma Johnston singing. Ryan Reynolds supplied narration for the films. There was also a film produced by Free Theatre Christchurch and slipped into the programme as a surprise for the audience, which offered a taste of the company’s upcoming production Doctor Faustus for the 2010 Platform Arts Festival. 

Part of the performance was later presented as part of the 2010 NZ International Film Festival in Wellington and Napier.

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Publicity

Ryan Reynolds and Chris Reddington talk about the Marvellous Corricks
Eva Radich, RadioNZ, Upbeat

Marvellous vaudeville returns to Arts Centre
Charlie Gates, The Press

E-flyer for the Corricks

Corrick Programme for Film Festival