A collage of visual poetry, song and dance is how Alan Smith and Aprille Choudhury describe their latest Chameleon Productions show.

There is no title as such -- just a large `?' which, says Mr. Smith, represents his collective consciousness "and I wrote it all down. I'd like to stress,'' he adds with a laugh, "that this is not a poetry reading! It's a show, which is very lively and vivacious, with some great music and which I think everyone will enjoy.'' The cast of seven will act and dance out the poems, most of which are authored by Mr. Smith. He is also the overall director of the production.

"Most of the cast are non-dancers,'' he explains, "but they express the poetry through movement, mainly aspects of modern dance, and mime.'' Joining Alan and Aprille onstage will be popular actress and singer, Ginea Edwards, who scored a huge success with the Jabulani Repertory performances at the Princess Hotel. "Ginea showed me this poem she had written, called `I long to see the sunrise', which I liked, and as I thought it fitted in with the mood of the show, we decided to include it,'' explains Mr. Smith.

He reveals that he is also using one of his mother's (Malika Symonds) poems.

"She asked me to type it out for her as she wanted to give it to someone, and I loved it and decided to use that for the show, as well.'' Mr. Smith, who attended Saltus Grammar School and now works for Applied Computer Technologies, says he seems to have always been writing: "I was very good in English at school, and interested in English Literature. I suppose I started writing poetry when I was about 16, but didn't get involved in performance for about another eight years after that.'' He reveals that he met his Chameleon Productions partner, Aprille Choudhury around 16 years ago, when they both made their debut in `We Are People Too'.

"I went to school in the States and then studied speech and language pathology there. I'm going back in September on a two-year study leave to do my Masters. I always loved to dance, but only took it up seriously two years ago.'' In spite of her late start as a dancer, she was chosen to attend the eight-week Alvin Ailey Summer School Dance Programme and was actually offered a full two-year scholarship. "Unfortunately, I couldn't afford to take it up.'' Although Mr. Smith is loath to reveal the contents of the show, he says there are several recurring themes, some of which deal with nature, love, violence, and a section called `Crossroads' which deals with spirituality, exploring the fact that both the dark and the good co-exists in everyone.

"You don't have to live through something in order to write about it,'' he maintains, "I expect most people would think I was writing about myself in my poem, `What d'you mean I didn't get the job?' -- especially as I have dreadlocks! But in fact, it was a friend of mine who had a college degree but had locks and had trouble getting a job.'' Although Alan Smith has decided, this time around, to direct his own origianl work, he insists there has been plenty of input from the cast. "This has been great, because in some instances, they have put their own interpretation on a piece, which may have been quite different from mine. But we decided that it if works, `use it'. The one thing I've been very firm about is people showing up to rehearsals. One of the problems in producing any show is that every time someone fails to show up, or leaves early, it ends up by compromising the show in some way. Sometimes, this means that the idea you've dreamed about is not what actually happens on the stage.'' Mr. Smith designed the "simple'' costumes which have been made by Calvin Vincent. "I think the costumes work well, because we wanted to create an atmosphere that is relaxing. City Hall is not a very relaxed place, but we're using incense -- that may help!'' The music and background music has been arranged by Wendell Simmons. The cast also includes Melanie DeRosa, Colin Godwin, Charmaine Raynor, Eston Rawlins and Jerome Cooke.

`?' will be presented at City Hall on August 18 and 19 at 8 p.m. Tickets at $20 are available from 27th Century Boutique and from the City Hall Box Office (telephone 292-2313).

CITY HALL-BOUND -- Mr. Alan Smith and Ms Aprille Choudhury, whose show, `?', opens at City Hall Theatre this week.