The
Breinton Morris - Notes of a Fool
Before I joined the side, The Green Man had already developed a character by manifesting through Jim Nock, Steve Beaver and Andy Beaver. This character was complex - frightening, amusing, worrying, amazing. He danced with the side, but apart from it. One minute he was safely within the set, parodying some fancy footwork and seemingly trying to put the dancers off - much to the audience's amusement. Then he leapt out through a hole in the next figure, and began to menace the crowd. Just when things were about to get too uncomfortable he'd leap back into the set through another momentary hole and dance along with the rest of the side, proving to be just as good a "straight" dancer as the rest. For this to work spontaneously, every dancer in the side had to be in the right place at the right time - which, of course, they were...
The leaves
were made by Tony, the original Bagman. They lasted the life of the side,
but were re-dyed occassionally.
The
leaves became like limp rags after a few outings, so regularly needed individual
ironing to maintain their effect! The earliest mask was a half-face affair,
with wild hair attached. This mask was made from a solid modelling compound.
On my first day away as Green Man to Lord Conyers in Sheffield, I sat on it
in the bus and broke it. We just couldn't find a "Green Man Mask Shop" anywhere,
so I had to spend the weekend doing ongoing repairs with superglue! On return,
I made a new mask out of latex rubber and a bit of old dyed sheepskin rug.
This mask covered more of the face and has lasted forever.
At a later
point, horns were included in acknowledgement to links between The Green Man
and The Horned God. This
latter point was the result of me immersing myself in The Green Man. I read
everything there was to read. Everywhere I went I found The Green Man in churches,
cathedrals, civic architecture (see related page). I began to regularly go
to the annual "Fools and Animals Unconvention" where people like Morris Sunderland
and Trevor Hull encouraged my obsession and where I did the occassional presentation
on The Green Man. 
It
was from these Unconventions that another idea began to emerge - sometimes
when we did Border in the winter, we'd have enough men for a side plus The
Green Man. But the Green Man always seemed limp and lifeless in the winter.
But then I realised - he would, wouldn't he? Wrong season! Not natural! Lets
have The Winter Fool instead! So we did. The kit was very much a side effort,
but based on a coat that Tony had found. It was decided that The Fool should
be dark and wintery, but that there should be flashes of colour under his
coat - life would return.
At some point The Green
Man and the Fool acquired a bladder on a stick. The stick obviously had to
have a head on it, like a traditional fool's staff. My first attempt at this
reflected my skills in woodworking and stick manufacture - Rubbish! But a
chance encounter with a piece of wood in a cave in Derbyshire proved inspirational. 
The
Green Man moves in mysterious ways (anyone who's seen him dance will know
what I mean!) and I found I'd somehow managed to make a stick that turned
out different from my intended plan, but that was just right. Previous Fool's
Tools had been a loofah with bells attached (someone tuned into a different
wavelength, there! Hello Steve!!), and an oversized version of one of the
side's painted sticks. It wasn't long before The Green Man started to use
the phallic properties of the Stick and Bladder - always with taste and decorum,
of course (!??!!). He then began using two bladders on the stick, which was
perhaps overstating the suggestion. Two maxims from The Trivia Boys (a secret
society Cliff and Phill are members of) spring to mind here "If A Thing's
Worth Doing, It's Worth Overdoing" and "Nothing Exceeds Like Excess".
At some point The Green Man made me paint myself green under the kit, so there would be no pink skin (The Winter Fool followed suit, blacking his face with the traditional and very serviceable burnt-cork-and-beer of the old local sides, rather than the black stage-make-up of other "Border Morris" sides). The basic idea in the case of The Green Man was to disrupt the "It's only a bloke in a costume" defence wherever possible. Another aspect of this was that The Green Man was mute - any interaction with individuals or the crowd would have to be mimed, based on action. Another thing (and this was at Cliff's early insistence) was that The Mask never came off or got put on in public. So while we were waiting to go on, the side would include a bloke painted green and wearing leaves, who was happy to chat to anyone about anything and accept offers of beer and the like. Then the side would get up to dance, this bloke would disappear, then when the crowd were well into the first dance The Green Man would leap out over someone's head and dive into the set. This usually gained the attention of the audience!
The attention-grabbing
nature of The Green Man was one of the trickiest aspects to negotiate. He
had to grab the watchers' interest (no problem) but direct it to the dancing
of the side. To achieve this, all his antics were carried out in rhythm to
the music and the figures of the dance even when he was working the audience.
The trick was for him to be a part of the dance, yet apart... Phill
Lister