SEPTEMBER 2021: QUARTERHOUSE FOLKESTONE
Conceived, visualised and directed by Terry Smith with Lise Boucon, Sarah April Lamb, Rubiane Maia, Randolph Matthews, Ash McNaughton. Performed at the Quarterhouse Folkestone 18 September 2021
FIRST MOVEMENT
Mirror
00:00:00
I stood by the mirror, looking at my reflection, I began to doubt which side of the mirror I stood was I just the reflection thinking I was real
Cage begins (7 minutes)
The piece starts before the audience arrives.
The performers are standing still in the space as 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 pause the music starts.
The performers move slowly taking measured steps backwards, making gestures as if they were looking at themselves in a mirror. The mirror is imagined.
There are seven actions that once completed require the performer to take a step back, pause and then repeat the gestures.
Once the sequence is completed each performer is located next to a chair and the next sequence of actions take place.
NOTES: This is about the activity of looking in the mirror. A daily activity. It might involve medium size actions, or small actions. These are not mimes but acts of self awareness. Adjusting posture looking at ourselves a series of repetitive actions
SECOND MOVEMENT
The Chair
00:07:00
(10 minutes)
once pride of place - shared many cosy nights but now hidden in a spare room unwanted and unloved
They move around to the chair, there is a bonding, viewing it as an object and subject. The chair is the focus of this movement. The chair is real but the room it sits in, is imagined. It can be any chair, in any place in any room. It could be a chair that looks out of a window or faces inside the room.
It could be an office, kitchen, or bedroom chair. The performer decides the imagined location their chair is placed. The actions here treat the chair not as a place to sit but an object to explore.
This section is about the isolation of a person as they come to face their own circumstance and situation. With no one to speak with the ‘dialogue’ is with this inanimate object..
NOTES: I remember the first days and weeks of lockdown, glued to the TV everyday trying to process what this means. I think we all thought it was a temporary reset that would last perhaps a few weeks. Little did we know then how long and how disruptive it would be.
I have favourite objects, a certain cup I prefer for tea and another one for coffee. I have different tables and chairs in my flat and studio and I seem to think differently in each setting. I also carry with me at all times a notebook and pen. I have different pens and books for different types of notes. This is not something I have developed over lockdown, this is just normal for me.
THIRD MOVEMENT
Defining Space
00:17:23
SOUND INTERRUPTION 1: Industrial (3 minutes)
Performers come to a point of stillness and motionlessness. The music changes to an industrial sound which 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 imagined interior to an imagined 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. While clearly modifying their behaviour and movements in response to each other, 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.
PERSONAL NOTES: I have a mild OCD. I notice it most when I am leaving the house or locking up the doors at night. So I might be halfway to the station and then the thought, -did I lock the door-, arrives in my head. After a few steps, despite myself - I know I must return to check. At night I have a routine of locking the front door. When I am very anxious this routine gets more and more elaborate. When I lived in Hackney, there was a front door, back door and side door and windows. Fortunately at the moment I have only one door to deal with. Eventually I have to re-boot myself, and stop. I have no idea if anyone else does this.
FORTH MOVEMENT
Slow Dance
00:20:30
sound interruption 2 : Slow music and scratches ( 7 minutes )
The soundscape changes to an extremely slowed down piece of music, with scratches and clicks.
Small actions of synchronicity occur. Performers move at different paces and speeds.
NOTES: The music is from an old 78rpm record slowed down on a record player set at 16 rpm. The sound creates a sense of the past, it moves like an old machine. Its one of the oldest popular recording devices and the scratches take on a strange other worldliness.
FIFTH MOVEMENT
Disruption
00:27:30
The unexpected ( 5:47 minutes )
Suddenly one of the photographers documenting the performance from the edges, trespasses onto the stage and moves among them, continuing to take pictures. Sometimes they get in the way, adding a visual and performative disturbance.
Then the photographer returns to the wings.
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.
NOTES: In all my work there is a sense of disruption. In this movement I wanted to break the familiar, the audience have learnt how the work progresses, through repetition and various encounters. The intrusion of the photographer changes that dynamic and bring the performance momentarily down to earth. It looks like a violation of the protocol of performance.
SIXTH MOVEMENT
Listen
00:32:47
sound interruption: Silence ( 2:30 Minutes )
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.
NOTES: With the complex soundscape of the previous moments and following on from the disruption of the ‘uninvited guest’ There is a moment when all recored sound stops and the only sound is the footsteps of the performers and their breathing.
SEVENTH MOVEMENT
Return
00:35:08
Final Cage ( 6 minutes )
The Cage music returns and the performer play-out the end game. ( 6 minutes )
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 the work ends.
NOTES: This section returns to the Cage music exactly at the point it stopped in the 3rd Movement. The performers return to their point of origin, to the place they started. But now instead of standing they are slumped over a chair, laying on the floor or staring into space. The return of the music signals to the audience that the performance is coming to an end.
The duration of the performance is approx. 41 mins.
00:41:06
