NEVER ENDING JOURNEY
This performance happens in black box theatre space and is a hybrid of a theatre performance and a participative video installation with blurred beginning and end. The performance is structured as a journey through a sequence of rooms. Theatrical and psychological triggers focus imagination and emotional experience of visitors around the topics of near-death experience, love, friendship, personal relations and positive intimate moments of life. Despite the fact that performance is happening in theatre space and suggests a fictional “after death” frame, it is never clear for the participant whether the situation is a part of theatrical reality or not. Composition of events prepares a participant to a highly emotional point when they are proposed to make a confession (to say “the most beautiful words in the world”) in front of the camera. The confession is followed by one-on-one and then a group meeting of participants within the same performative place which suggests a different poetic attitude to the common social experience.
The maximal number of participants for one set is eight. The duration of each set is between 40 minutes and one hour. Several sets per day are possible.
The performance starts as a soft deviation from the well-known theatre social practice. At the cash desk, each of participants is approached with an individual secret question. Then, just before entering the performative space the suddenly appears from nowhere – the intro text, suggesting introspective attitude.
Immediately after that, they are invited to the central cube black by a charming hostess-stewardess. They take their places, fasten seatbelts and left alone. The soundscape of a plane crash suggests the framing of the situation that they are in.
The participants are invited behind the curtains of a central cube pair after pair. Each of the participants goes around the cube through a chain of “rooms” until he/she meets the other one. Meanwhile, the other waiting participants are treated by charming hostesses in a way, that aim to lead/mislead their expectations regarding to what is happening behind the curtains of the cube. 1st room: They watch a video projection: It is a close-up of a face; the features reveal that the person is saying something emotional but there is no sound. 2nd room: They meet a person (a performer) whose face they have just seen in the video. In the space, there is a table, a tape player with headphones and tapes in boxes from which the participant chooses one. The recording is a short guided-imagination tour, partly referring to the context of the situation. 3rd room: Participants are invited to sit in front of the camera and make the confession recording. 4th room: The two participants come from opposite sides of the space and meet each other to have a sensitive moment of shared presence. 5th room: They get out to the “extra room” (preferably not theatrical space) with fruits and champagne – as a silent invitation for a conversation of sharing their experiences.
In the “extra room” they are asked whether the confession-recordings can be used part of a sound/video installation in the next set.
The sound space of the performance is united. The sound is a live improvised ambiance, that serves the concentration and creates the atmosphere of “liminal world”. Spoken words from the “video confessions” of all performers and previous participants appear and disappear in this sound fabric.
The lighting is set from the beginning and there is only one change during the plane crash.
This performance happens in black box theatre space and is a hybrid of a theatre performance and a participative video installation with blurred beginning and end. The performance is structured as a journey through a sequence of rooms. Theatrical and psychological triggers focus imagination and emotional experience of visitors around the topics of near-death experience, love, friendship, personal relations and positive intimate moments of life. Despite the fact that performance is happening in theatre space and suggests a fictional “after death” frame, it is never clear for the participant whether the situation is a part of theatrical reality or not. Composition of events prepares a participant to a highly emotional point when they are proposed to make a confession (to say “the most beautiful words in the world”) in front of the camera. The confession is followed by one-on-one and then a group meeting of participants within the same performative place which suggests a different poetic attitude to the common social experience.
The maximal number of participants for one set is eight. The duration of each set is between 40 minutes and one hour. Several sets per day are possible.
The performance starts as a soft deviation from the well-known theatre social practice. At the cash desk, each of participants is approached with an individual secret question. Then, just before entering the performative space the suddenly appears from nowhere – the intro text, suggesting introspective attitude.
Immediately after that, they are invited to the central cube black by a charming hostess-stewardess. They take their places, fasten seatbelts and left alone. The soundscape of a plane crash suggests the framing of the situation that they are in.
The participants are invited behind the curtains of a central cube pair after pair. Each of the participants goes around the cube through a chain of “rooms” until he/she meets the other one. Meanwhile, the other waiting participants are treated by charming hostesses in a way, that aim to lead/mislead their expectations regarding to what is happening behind the curtains of the cube. 1st room: They watch a video projection: It is a close-up of a face; the features reveal that the person is saying something emotional but there is no sound. 2nd room: They meet a person (a performer) whose face they have just seen in the video. In the space, there is a table, a tape player with headphones and tapes in boxes from which the participant chooses one. The recording is a short guided-imagination tour, partly referring to the context of the situation. 3rd room: Participants are invited to sit in front of the camera and make the confession recording. 4th room: The two participants come from opposite sides of the space and meet each other to have a sensitive moment of shared presence. 5th room: They get out to the “extra room” (preferably not theatrical space) with fruits and champagne – as a silent invitation for a conversation of sharing their experiences.
In the “extra room” they are asked whether the confession-recordings can be used part of a sound/video installation in the next set.
The sound space of the performance is united. The sound is a live improvised ambiance, that serves the concentration and creates the atmosphere of “liminal world”. Spoken words from the “video confessions” of all performers and previous participants appear and disappear in this sound fabric.
The lighting is set from the beginning and there is only one change during the plane crash.
STAGE SET (see
the plan)
The stage set –is a kind of site-specific installation, which can be adopted for the space of theatre Small changes are possible, depending on possibility to include “backstage area” to the set up (see the stage sketch)
1. Preferably black box app. 9x11m, which has 2 entrances from opposite sides available for the audience (just 8 people).
2. A system of black curtains (app. 36m) for transforming the space in series of rooms (see the plan). It is important to have “entrances” in curtains exactly on the marked locations.
Possibility to get in use small technical rooms of backstage area (as dressing room, or small lager room, or even a bathroom) would be an advantage. If there is no possibility of that, than app 20 meters of black curtains should be added to that 36m, 56m in total.
3. 2 tables of a standard size, + 1 small table for drinks and fruits for the “exit” space
4. 14 chairs, 8 of them preferably of different shape,
+ 8 chares or benches for the audience at the “Balcony” (see the plan)
5. 2 Beamers SOUND REQUIREMENTS (see the plan)
1. 4 high tops, 4 mids and 4 subs speakers or the same just 2 of each speakers
2. mixer 16 or 8 channels
3. power amplifier for the speakers
LIGHTS REQUIREMENTS (see the stage sketch)
1. 10 x PAR 56 (300w)
2. 3xFresnel (500w)
3. 1 Flutter (500w)
4. 2 or 3 light tripods
5. Manual light board (no programming is necessary)
