Almost

I went to Theater De Regentes to see the performance by Ji-sun Yang. When I entered the room placed innermost in the theater, a scarlet color jumped to the eye. That was the color of hanging fabric wall made of stretchable textile, in which embed three robes from the shoulder toward the base.

Two female dancers were dressing in the fixed-robe. Three musicians (Bass clarinet, Accordion, Cello) were sitting down face to face with dancers.

After the short black out, the performance started. The beginning with fluent atmosphere reminded me of the 3rd movement of Mahler's Symphony No.1, however it's in C moll, instead of D.

Dancers started to move their arms and legs with all deliberate speed. The music had a beautiful and very slow progression like a drawn-out choral. It never stepped out from Aeolian scale just like that dancers didn't come out from the wall.

In the middle of piece, another dancer appeared into the last robe from the backside.
After having a solo of her, she disappeared again. Once performance came to a climax,
everything faded and went back to the original point.

What the title, "Almost" means? Well, it might be a good idea to close the review with this. It's almost as if they're connected.

Who knows?

After watched the music theater by Angus at Korzo Theater, I had a cup of tea with Yoko at a cafe near the Grote Kerk. She has been working for four years as a media artist based in the Hague. We met at the Japan Festival in the Korzo theater. That time there was her installation in the passage, and I liked it. As things turned out, the music in the dance I went to the other day was composed by her husband as well as she did a stage design.

Today I was writing my curriculum vitae to apply for a workshop scheduled to start next October in Bilthoven. However I don't know whether I will be accepted into Second Phase or not, what is clear is that I have to work harder than ever after the example of Yoko.

24 Minutes of Solitude

From the minute I set foot in the space, I felt a good atmosphere.

On a two-by-two square platform sitting in the center of the room, a young woman is buried in a heap of messy clothes. The seats are installed to encircle the stage from three different directions. Three trees also encircle the space, separating the seating blocks. An old gentleman is siting on a chair beside a tree. A young man by another tree...

I have to say that the introduction of the performance could have been better. It may be a harsh critique, due to the inadequate skill of the actor, it was not enough to draw the audience into the world of the play. When the young man sang his first song, I felt it was just another melody.

The young man has a tape recorder with which he replayed his message to the young woman again and again. This effect was interesting. It seemed like the old man was the young man in the future, overlapping in space but not in time. As fragmentary words and music linked little by little, a connection between the casts gradually became clearer.

There were only two musicians; violin and contrabass. They played together by the trees. They moved from one tree to another between each scene. It's indeed disappointing that the sound of the musician's steps interrupted the drama. (especially as later scenes got in the groove) You could say this counter-clockwise stage-managed movement was a sort of metaphor... However, it was not particularly successful.


In the end of the performance, three trees, three actors and musicians came together into the center platform. --it's like putting all the pieces of a memory back together.


24 Minutes of Solitude -
Friday 30 May 2008, 20.30 hrs. at Korzo5HOOG
Angus Barnacle (composition) and Milone Reigman (direction)

rehearsal

I attended to the rehearsal of "Aya no Tsuzumi" for the first time. While I have had many meeting with Sander about the text and reading, I haven't heard the music so far.
To be honest, I didn't expected a quality, because he had reduced a fair amount of the text all the time.

But I was wrong.
The balance between music and text is pretty good. The film is absolutely professional, thanks to the staffs. It seems like the performance will turn out just fine.

eel and avocado with white wine sauce

 

pasta with asparagus, tomato and bacon

 

Mochi-mochi no Ki

 
When I saw this fantasy tree at midnight,
it reminded me of "Mochi-mochi no Ki", a picture book I used to read when I was little.

Fried rice, please.