Paranoia, beauty and the pain of intimate human relationships are explored with three people, three iBooks, one video projection and music from another world.
In a time when television is the backdrop to our daily lives, when communication happens through mediation (cell phone, fax, email) more often than it does face to face–About Silence meditates on life, love and obsession. Three actors speak, illuminated only by the glow of a laptop. On the computer screen from which they read is a long list of statements, images and questions, most of which follow the form, “About…”. The performers say their lines in sequence – but no lines are assigned to them, no lines are skipped and no silences are choreographed. Whoever has the urge to say the line does. If two people start to speak a line at the same time – they both finish together. There are moments during which the actors notice one another, moments when they notice the audience and moments when they laugh, smile or seem upset by what they are reading. And, of course, there are moments of silence.
For each performance of About Silence, new performers are selected from the local community. These performers do not rehearse and are only briefed on the rules and given some small directions just before the performance starts. About Silence has been performed by Grace Surman, Gary Winters, Andrew McKinnon, Mabou Mines, Julie Atlas Muz, Mark Russell, Kristen Marting, and a long list of other notable and emerging performers, programmers, and curators.
About Silence will be showing in London in November:
Proto-type Theater’s
ABOUT SILENCE
At BAC in London
“Petralia’s language and concerns are, respectively, beautiful and bracing. About Silence is a fascinating evening.” - Martin Denton, nytheatre.com
When: 9pm 13-15 November 2008
Where: BAC, London
Online: http://www.bac.org.uk
Tickets: Pay what you can
Written by Peter S. Petralia with music composed by [zygote] and video projection by Francisco R. Lopez. Each night there will be a different set of performers (line up to be confirmed).
In About Silence paranoia, beauty and the pain of intimate human relationships is explored with three people, three laptops, one video projection and music from another world.
Three people are seated at a table facing three laptops (and the audience). They begin speaking, their voices amplified by microphones and their faces illuminated only by the glow of the laptop screen. Behind them, a projection of abstracted, extreme close-ups of body parts: a woman’s eye, her mouth, her nose – superimposed with the features of a dark man. On the performers’ screens, is a long list of statements, images and questions, most of which follow the form “About…”
This is an unrehearsed performance: the performer will have never seen the text before. During About Silence, the performers follow a few simple rules: none of the lines are assigned to a performer, all the lines must be spoken, the order of the lines cannot change, if one of them starts speaking at the same time as another they synch up their voices. What this means is that the performance ends up being about how the particular performers negotiate the text live in front of an audience. The charged atmosphere this creates is bracing: the performers laugh, smile or seem upset by what they are reading and, of course, there are inevitably moments of silence.
