Kid Koala, real name Eric San, is a world-renowned scratch DJ, music producer and award winning graphic novelist. Originally from Canada, Kid Koala is performing his theatrical adaptation of his graphic novel and soundtrack Nufonia Must Fall at the NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Center. The show, which San originally wrote as a graphic novel in 2003, centers on a robot who falls in love. The story unfolds on stage in real time: puppeteers control the characters’ movements to fit with the live sounds of Kid Koala and the Afiara Quartet on piano, strings and turntables. All the music was composed by San. The movement of the puppets is then projected to the audience through real time filming.

####Let me begin by asking you to describe Nufonia Must Fall in your own words.

The show is the culmination of many universes and crafts that I’m interested in personally but … if I were to describe it I would say it’s a live animated graphic novel. It combines cinema, theatre, classical chamber music, DJ music culture, sound design and puppetry.

Image courtesy of Clive Primrose

####Has anything like this ever been attempted before?

I’ve never done anything like this before. I come from a classical music, film scoring background with DJ scratch and hip hop. What’s colliding here is my DJ world and soundtrack music and string quartets.

####When you wrote the graphic novel did you envision this production?

Not at all, no. I thought that was just a project that had finished. But looking back I can see how the dots connect pretty easily because it was a graphic novel, of 350 pages, and it had zero words. But it did have a soundtrack, it came with a CD with music for certain scenes I’d recorded, almost like a read along storybook. What [we] did with the story is pretty inspiring to be around. It’s like we’re a five headed hydra but we’re all part of the same organism on stage. So the puppet department and the music department and the camera department, we all have to work in concert for the film to actually be realised.

####Do things often go wrong on stage?

Every night, but not wrong in terms of catastrophically derailing the whole narrative. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that there are so many moving parts. It is like there’s 15 of us on one surfboard, you know. I think the audience actually feels that urgency, they feel that it’s being done in real time and enjoy that.

####Is every show distinct?

Absolutely. Not only because we’re usually adding new transitions and sequences and scenes and writing new music, and also localising the set and scene. Right now I’m backstage with the set designer Nancy [Belzile] and we’re building some more localised Abu Dhabi and UAE scenery to build into the story. It will change absolutely, I wanted that. I think because of that localisation, people will feel that this probably isn’t the same show as in New Orleans and China and Australia. Plus it helps us get out in the city, and see what times of things we can enter into the show. It’s one of the perks of being an entertainer, you get to travel and see things.

####You wrote the graphic novel in 2003 — did the show need to happen now from a technological standpoint?

I think what happened to catalyze this project was just the people that I met. So I met K.K Barrett [the Director] who’s worked on some of my favourite films of all time. I thought it would be fun to do a project with him that bridges turntables and soundtrack to cinema moment. Then I met Felix [Boisvert] who’s our principal puppeteer, and then Adrian Fung, our chief cellist for the quartet. So within meeting that group of people, having bridged those worlds, this was the project where [they] all came together.

Image courtesy of Clive Primrose

####[Director] K.K Barrett describes the experience as the audience telling a different story back to you. What does he mean by that?

Well here’s the thing. Some people come up and meet the puppeteers and they’ll see the sets and they’ll say “what were you talking about? This thing was only 4 inches tall”. They really felt that their imagination was taking them in with the story. That said, the characters don’t talk. So if the characters are emoting it’s usually through movement. Through the tilt of the head and like that, mixed with the music. It’s the audience projecting what they think he’s feeling, what they think he’s going through. We just push them in a direction and I think why people become involved in this story is because they’re reflecting their own life experiences into the show. It’s a blank slate. They’re robots, they don’t have mouths to tell you exactly how they are feeling.

Nufonia Must Fall is on show at the NYUAD Arts Center on May 11 and May 12.