Review of Dream Play

Last Wednesday I attended a performance that was based on Strindberg’s Dream Play.
The scenic design of the piece was minimal and symmetrical and was very visually pleasing. There was a single red door at the back of the stage which was surrounded by large hanging jigsaw pieces, upon which a projection was cast. The door remained lit throughout the performance, but was never opened.
In retrospect, I find this emphasis on the door to be a little confusing, and I wonder now whether or not this lighting element was a wise design choice. For a great deal of the performance the actors were only partially lit, so the audience’s attention was repeatedly drawn to the door. Not being familiar with the original play, the symbolism of the door was unclear to me. I think this ambiguity was further compounded by the structure of the script, were all the characters of the original play were divided among two actors.
Perhaps the projections could have been a little more descriptive in order to aid the audience in understanding the performance as a whole. Having said this, for me the most successful element of the performance was the projections, and I would have liked them to cover more of the jigsaw pieces (since I know that this was the original design plan). I also liked the costumes in general, although I felt that Agnes’ boots were a little clunky.
Overall, the piece provided some very visually interesting moments; however, I left the theatre somewhat confused, and the meaning of the performance evades me still... perhaps I should go to the library and read the play...

Images From SunDogs Rehearsals

Things are going smoothly with SunDogs and everyone is getting along nicely...

A Response to Phase Lapse

Last Wednesday I attended Phase Lapse, a 20minute devised performance inspired by the traditional Korean poem Gong Mu Do Ha Ga. The element that most appealed to me about the performance was the sheer simplicity of the design concept. The room was entirely bare apart from a number of candles, a hanging cloth, a bowl of water and a live body. The work had a certain confidence about it; by this I mean that every aspect seemed considered and thought through. Nothing was rushed. Everything was paced and the performer held the audience in moments of beautiful stillness; using her body to capture and recreate the ebb and flow of tranquil waters.

I will say, however, that I felt the piece might have benefited from a little more action and that there were moments which could have been exploited to engage the audience a little bit more. Water is not always tranquil; it is sometimes violent and unpredictable. It erodes and weathers. Waves crash and break. Perhaps the stillness of the performance could have also broken at moments to allow for waves of climax to crash and then recede.

When the performer extinguished the last candle, for example, was a moment in which the dramatic potential was not capitalised on. I understood the candles to represent the light of life, and although the performer paid great attention to the extinguishing of the first light, the last four where put into the bowl of water and extinguished together. I felt as though even a simple pause, before the last light was quenched, might have added pathos to the moment.

For me, one of the most successful elements of Phase Lapse was the costume design, which transformed from black into white during the course of the performance. Although I know that the use of the colour white was intended to represent death here, I still read it as a signifier of matrimony. I say this not in criticism, but rather as a compliment. The group aimed to explore the mixing of cultures and this contradiction made me consider my own cultural perspective and how it can limit the way I view and understand things.

However, I think that my misreading of the colour white, as a signifier for matrimony, was unintentionally reinforced by the group’s choice of music for the final moments of the piece, which was a electronic track featuring the sound of church bells (Scaling by µ-Ziq, from the album Royal Astronomy). Another reason that I found it a little jarring to hear this piece of music is that it is already known to me and is in my music collection. Although it is a great track that I really like, because I know it, it coloured the performance for me and I think this is best avoided if possible. Apart from that, the sound design was very nicely mixed. I particularly liked that no one voice dominated over the others. Instead the overlapping voices sounded like the babbling of a brook.

Overall Phase Lapse was a very tight show, which was well conceived and executed with precision and assurance. Congratulations to all involved.

The Votes Are In

Earlier this year I worked on the set and projections design for a play called Same Old Moon, which has since been touring the festival circuit in Ireland. (There are 8 festivals in total) I just heard word of the judge’s verdicts on the piece and we were pretty happy overall.

The following awards have been received. ; We got 2 wins, 5 seconds and 1 third. Our total on acting awards was 14 and we got 4 adjudicators awards and 4 technical awards (1 for technical, 1 sound and 2 for the set). Not a bad haul overall


So Same Old Moon has qualified now to compete at the All Irelands this month in Waterford.

Fingers crossed...

SUN DOGS Rehearsals

The dancers who I have been working with in the creation of SUN DOGS (a devised performance to be viewed in Wimbledon on the 30th of April and the 1st of May) are all trained in the art of Butoh. For this reason we are employing a lot of Butoh exercises in our rehearsals and ultimately these will greatly influence the final performance. Within Butoh there is an understanding that movement is initiated by an internal or external source, rather than by a conscious decision to change ones position. For this reason there is a constant interplay between states of control and “uncontrol”. Here is one of the exercises which we have been exploring.

TEXT SOILDIER TO 80010

I designed the projected images for our group progect, Ambient Noise. The projection simply consisted of a scroling text that instructed the audience to “TEXT SOILDIER TO 80010”

If a member of the audience chose to carry out the instruction they would receive a text message back from the British Army about recruitment opportunities.

Toy Soldiers and Freshly Cut Lemons

In our group performance, Ambient Noise, we created masks which were intended to be looked through by members of the public, while the actors watched the audience. Behind each mask was a lit scenario for the audience to view, accompanied by a sound played through headphones. Bo chose to accompany my mask with the theme tune of Super Mario. Here is an image of the scenario which I made.

The scenario consisted of toy soldiers and freshly cut lemons.

“Suddenly all was fire and sword! Splinters of shells had gashed the
lemons. Now death was in action” (Jean Genet; The Balcony)

I chose to use lemons because I wanted to engage, not only the aural and visual senses of our audience members, but also the sense of smell.