Justus for every age

A SNOWMAN IN THE DESERT Peacock Theatre Until July 30

ARGUABLY as a culture we don’t create enough space for older artists. Justus Neuman, the veteran Bruny Island (via Vienna) theatre maker, has challenged this cultural norm with a series of one-person shows.

These shows have directly addressed ageing, using the art form to draw out existential and ethical questions.

Neuman’s clowning tramp is a master of just holding the stage — the kind of performer who makes fascinating the pouring of a glass of water.

His exceptional craft constantly probes the performer’s contract with the audience.

What do we want of this sometimes sad, sometimes wise and mostly good-humoured figure?

His current show presents as an autobiographical work, what co-creator John Bolton calls a “photo album-like show”.

And we loosely follow a narrative through early childhood and into adulthood via a series of theatrical vignettes.

The brilliant sequence of his mother’s hand — a prosthetic prop — is full of childhood perspective and play. But the show pushes a little further. Interspersed across the evening are a series of songs and monologues — the text drawn, I suspect, from playwright and linguist Herbert Maurer.

This provides some of the show’s most powerful moments — the blood and iron evocation of war, genuinely chilling.

But those elements may have stretched the show a little too far.

There is a sense that this show may still be finding a final form.

But Neuman’s stage presence, with a sensitive live score from guitarist Julius Schwing, awaits audiences yet to experience this most gifted of performers.