Members of Red Mole. Photo: Supplied
An unconventional theatre company which found short-lived fame on the streets of Wellington and New York is the subject of a new documentary currently screening at Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival. Red Mole: A Romance follows performance collective Red Mole, founded by the late Alan Brunton and Sally Rodwell in the early 1970s. Their often politically-charged shows took up all mediums from music, huge puppets and masks, and even fire eating, and performed across schools, strip clubs and opera houses. Ultimately Red Mole found solace in the underground scene, and met its end when that eventually gave way to more institutional and structured theatre. For documentary maker Annie Goldson her latest work is also a look back on own her time in New York, and her crossed paths with the troupe in the 1980s.
