MIRROR MIRROR OVERVIEW
Performance-Based Actions
SEPTEMBER 2021 VERSION QUARTERHOUSE FOLKESTONE
First movement
The piece starts before the audience arrives.
The performers are standing still in the space and the audience walk in and take seats around the edges. They have the option to move and change their perspectives during the performance.
Once the audience are seated, the doors are closed and after a short pausethe music starts.
The performers move slowly taking measured steps backwards, making gestures as if they were looking at themselves in a mirror.
There are seven movements that once completed require the performer to take a step back, pause and then repeat the gestures.
Once the sequence is completed the performers are next to a chair and the next sequence of actions take place.
Second movement
They move around to the chair, there is a bonding, viewing it as an object and subject.
Third movement
SOUND INTERRUPTION 1: Industrial
They come to a point of stillness and motionlessness. The music changes and an industrial sound begins to take over and dominate the sound scape.
The performers now start to explore the stage, so far they have been in isolation and now we go from an interior to an exterior space. As the performers navigate their way around the space they will gradually find, discover and invent encounters with the other performers. There is no eye contact, but they respond to the others on the periphery. It is as if they are microbes moving around the space attracted to and distracted from the others. All though clearly modifying their behaviour and movements there is no direct connection, eye contact or touching.
They remain alone and isolated, but aware of others.
They perform and return to series of actions all working the room indifferent ways, like chess pieces, some diagonally, some forwards and backwards.
Fourth movement
SOUND INTERRUPTION 2 : Slow music and scratches
The soundscape changes to an extremely slowed down piece of music, with scratches and clicks.
Small actions of synchronicity occur. They move at different paces and speeds.
Fifth movement
DISRUTPTION :
Suddenly one of the photographers documenting the performance from the edges, trespasses onto the stage and moves among them, taking pictures. Sometimes getting in the way and adding a visual and performative disturbance. Then returns to the sides.
The music becomes more haunted and displaced. giving a surreal backdrop to the actions. From time to time the performers return to some of the repetitive actions that began the performance.
Sixth movement
SOUND INTERRUPTION 3 : Silence
Suddenly the music stops and the performers continue with only the sounds of their steps and breathing. They are marching and stepping and marking their territory. This section is a nudge towards Cage's 4.33 silence.
The Cage music returns and the performer play-out the end game. They eventually come to a complete stop, in the same places where they began but now slumped on a chair, laying on the floor or staring up. One performer taps the floor in a casual, bored and disconnected way, keeping to some inner slow beat. The music stops and the performer continues to tap the floor. Eventually they stop a moment of pause and then the work ends.
The duration of the performance is approx 40 mins.
Mirror Mirror is a series of movements and actions performed by a variable number of performers within a set period of time.
The music is Two6 by John Cage written in 1996. The piece is 20 minutes long and has two instruments, the violin and piano.
In this piece the music and action has one interruption and one disruption. The interruption is in the music. After 15 minutes the sound track changes and a composed sequence of sounds enter the space.
Each performer refers to the same set of instructions and each performance is different and interpretive by each performer.
Their movements and actions are workshopped and rehearsed and follow a strict timeline.
There are however many areas that are not tightly choreographed, and these rely on the improvising skills of the performers. These areas are when the performers have to manage encounters with each other and a set of actions and counter- actions occur.
This ensemble work came about directly as a result and response to the pandemic and to lockdown, an experience the entire world shared. How we process these social disturbances and disruptions are some of the issues explored.
Mirror Mirror was one of the pieces that emerged from a series of two years of regular workshop sessions. This on-going project called Walk Stand Still, is the engine room for the continuing research and development of performance actions.
The components are carefully orchestrated and choreographed, but the movements and actions are the performers own.
THE INSTRUCTIONS
There are a number of performers in the space, numbers are variable. There are two objects: one, a chair is visible, the other, an invisible mirror.
There are two sets of instructions one that describes the actions the other that gives a background to the method and process. It’s a learning curve for the performers.
There are a number of risks built into the structure of the piece. The musical disruption can be changed, the physical disruption will be different and the experience and abilities of the performers will change the piece each time.
This work is the first of a series of works to be realised. Further works will be coming on line in due course.
It has taken a year to evaluate where I was and where I ended up and now I am ready to take this work out into the world.
One year on I am now better at this process, more accomplished in the method and just as scared and uncertain as I was at the beginning.
