Review: Robert Wilson performs John Cages Lecture On Nothing.

Supersense Festival
Robert Wilson performs John Cages Lecture On Nothing
Arts Centre Melbourne
24 August 2019
Playhouse
to 24 August
artscentremelbourne.com.au

"Robert Wilson performs John Cages Lecture On Nothing" Photo by Lucie Jansch

Robert Wilson performs John Cages Lecture On Nothing.

He sure does. He's been doing so since 2012 and did it twice in Melbourne on Saturday.

I nearly missed it as I was stuck in the White Night crowds: thousands of people looking at pretty lights and pictures on buildings and hoping for adventure on the traffic-free city streets. They might struggle with a show about the art of nothing. I was with them for a while. Where is the art in nothing?

The stage is contained by blue-white light and filled with banners written in upper case hand-painted black letters. They look like sentences, but they are mostly just words. These words become very familiar over the next hour or so. The floor is covered with scrunched up balls of paper that are so evenly spread that someone must know exactly how many balls per square metre of stage. Wilson, now in his 70s, sits at a desk. Wearing a white linen shirt and pants and white make up, he looks like a character in a Robert Wilson show. Another man, with black and white make up, stands on a level above Wilson's right under a screen and there's a bed to Wilson's left to complete the diagonal line. Their precise movement is easy to miss and the music is less than screeching but heading to an overbearing squeal of two notes.

John Cage (1912-92) was an American composer and theorist. The most-common way into discovering him is in his 1952 composition 4' 33". Played or performed on any instrument, it's four minutes and 33 seconds of silence; I first saw it performed on a toy piano. It's the kind of acclaimed genius that makes people scoff at minimalist theatre and love the pretty of White Night adventures. But it's still performed – a lot. Without Cage, we may not have the likes of Phillip Glass, John Adams, Terry Riley, Michael Nyman, Henryk Górecki or any of the background music I used to play at dinner parties.

Lecture on Nothing (1959) is written like a  piece of music, there are pauses and repetition.
       and repetition.       
       and repetition.
It's as much form as it's about form, and as much performance as it's about performance. It floats in that strange space that understands the art as it claims to be ephemeral.

There are plenty of lectures about the lecture, which was published in book – but this is a performance.

Robert Wilson (b 1941) is a theatre director and artists who is best known for Einstein on the Beach, his collaboration with composer Phillip Glass and choreographer Lucinda Childs. First seen in 1976, it's a show that lives up to its own legend. We've been privileged in Melbourne to have seen Einstein twice and had Wilson's works feature at Melbourne festivals.

When the music/noise stops, Wilson is alone on the stage. He takes a page from the pile of pages in front of him. It's a very large pile. As it takes a couple minutes to read each page, there's a ripple of fear that the 70-minute running time was a lie. Art can lie. Is he really going to read it, like the title says?

It's odd to have to listen to Robert Wilson theatre. So much of his work is about unspoken communication. Maybe the words really matter this time? Maybe.

But soon he's talking about structure and I'm there.

When I teach, new writers roll their eyes when I tell them that the secret to writing is structure, and that talent and creativity are the maple-flavoured dust on the icing on the cake layered with word play and metaphor. Structure's my way into understanding and letting go of any understanding about this nothing.

Robert Wilson performs John Cages Lecture On Nothing is as earnestly serious as it's disrespectfully funny. Some people scurry out – I wonder what they expected? – some laugh and others nod in understanding as the refrain of "More and more I have the feeling that we are getting nowhere" becomes profound and totally ridiculous.

If you dig the work of Wilson and Cage, you were probably there and you'll see it again if you get the chance.

What Melbourne loved in 2013, part 13

O, Yes! Today, we talk to three people from The Rabble's Story of O, a show that's getting a lot of screaming happy love.

Before this show, my first thought of Story of O was the 70s soft porn film version, that I'd only ever seen the poster for. I assumed it was something about orgasm. I was aware of the book, but had never read it. Before The Rabble's show opened, Dana Miltins (who was Jacqueline) told me that I had to read it. HAD to. Turns out it wasn't in any second hand book store I looked in ("Am I looking in classics or the curtained off section?"), so I gave Kindle some money.

I'm so glad I didn't read it as a teenager and I don't recommend it as a piece of literature, an arousing bed-time fantasy or even a good read. I gave up trying to imagine how this book could become a feminist piece of theatre.

But they did, and now my first thought of Story of O will always be this astonishing production.

Emma Valente
Co-Artistic Director, The Rabble

EMMA: Watching the long rise of an illuminated rectangle (did it take ten minutes?) in Einstein on the Beach and realising that I've been quoting Robert Wilson without knowing it. There was some kind of bum-numbing ecstasy in that moment; a collapsing of several histories, a single image fluctuating through many meanings. Quite perfect.

Eating burgers on the floor of the ANZ Pavilion (top floor of the Arts Centre) during interval at Life and Times and feeling like I was at a sleep over with all my friends. Then, after a quick nap during the last hour of that show, opening my eyes and realising aliens had landed. A beautiful left turn, a chocolate brownie, a joyful day at the theatre.

M+M. This production wrecked me. The agony – an event unto itself. An incredible cast and a formidable design team. Special mention to Nicola Andrews and Nik Pajanti who produced one of my favourite lighting designs of the year – complicated simple states – colouring in with a renaissance highlighter.

NEON. I think i'll remember this year for a while. It felt like there was some kind of definitive movement which extends well beyond NEON and the companies that were programmed this year, but can be exemplified by MTC's enthusiasm and exuberance for the project and the sense of community that started to grow like moss in the walls of the castle. Nothing was censored – no one said no – though some of us were close to the edge, some of the time. This year things shifted around.

What Emma is looking forward to in 2014 at issimomag.com.

SM: I often sit and wonder what a director is doing. But not with Emma*. I see her worlds and understand exactly what she, and co-creator Kate Davis, are doing. She doesn't have to explain anything to me. I watch her work and I feel like I was part of the process.

Emma's also a lighting designer. The colour she achieved in opening of Room of Regret: it was like breathing in gold air that had somehow managed to rust. And that every room in that labyrinth design changed mood and tone together.

* Or with Robert Wilson. I love that she was quoting him without knowing it. These are both directors who understand that you get rid of the useless words to really communicate.

Emily Milledge

actor, music theatre performer

EMILY: My favourite theatre moments this year, as a performer, are definitely those in a tiny cupboard with a rather scared, confused or very willing audience member in Room of Regret. 

Rarely do audience and actor get to meet in this way, and it's safe to say that people never (I hope) meet in real life for the first time in a dark, mirrored cupboard with soil on the ground. 

Actor–audience member relationships aside, the experience of meeting another person in this kind of weird intimacy and shared self examination was quite profound. What you're asking of yourself and the other person in that moment is to jump straight to a visceral and felt  truth that is literally staring right back at you. Let's do away with traditional introductory "Hi, my name is ..." interactions; stick yourself in a cupboard with someone for a minute and you'll come out knowing oodles of things about them!

As an audience member, my favourite moment was Olympia Bukkakis's karaoke moment in Summertime in the Garden of Eden. (I've just brought up "The Animal Song" by Savage Garden on YouTube now to reminisce that moment.) So hilarious, just amazingly hilarious, perfection.

SM: I noticed Emily in Gaybies and loved her in Room of Regret, but her performance as Natalie Story of O blew me away so much that I keep calling her Natalie. She was on stage with Dana Miltins, Jane Montgomery-Griffiths and Mary Helen Sassman – three performers who amaze and seduce me every time I see them – yet Emily was the one I kept watching. With hardly a word, she showed everything we needed to know about this teenager and why she wanted to be just like O.

What Emily is looking forward to in 2014 at issimomag.com.

Gary Abrahams

actor, director

Photo by Guy Little

GARY: 2013 was the year I really noticed the status quo shifting. Suddenly my colleagues and friends were the ones making headlines, moving into the top jobs, and generally beginning the transition from the old guard to the new. People who I had witnessed struggling, evolving, growing and, at times, failing over the last decade were now appearing on the mainstages, in major festivals, in positions of leadership and basically kicking goals all over the place. 

It kind of forced me to own up to the fact that I had grown too, that I was no longer an "emerging" artist, but an artist who had been practising and working steadily in some form or another for over a decade! The players sitting behind the desks of the big intimidating theatre companies were now people I had trained, studied  worked with. It's pretty exciting to get to that point. Scary too.

Nicola Gunn, Adena Jacobs, Daniel Schlusser, Ash Flanders and Declan Greene, Sam Strong, Anne Louise Sarkes, Tim Stitz ... I'm just name dropping now. Many more too. Many wonderful actors and dear friends too, working non-stop.

I think I find/found it so kind of poignant because entering this field, it's drummed into you that so few people succeed and the work is so scarce and it's all really a pipe dream. Yet I'm witnessing this delightful and inspiring shift in the paradigm. I know it'll last a while, then plateau, then the next generation will take over sooner than I'm prepared for. But it's just nice too witness for now.

So 2013 as a year in theatre was that sort of year for me: contemplative, confronting, career focussed.

On a personal note I had a blast working with The Rabble on Story of O for NEON. Such divine people; everyone who was involved in that show. And we got to do such dirty, dirty things with each other! It was an honour to get to be a part of NEON, but everyones already gone on about that so I'll leave it at that.

I enjoyed bingeing on stuff during the Melbourne Fringe. They saw a thylacine really stuck out for me. It stayed with me, even now I can think back on it and I'm transported to the place I was in as an audience member.  It's funny the shows that do that. We don't really have a choice about what sticks, and what vanishes.

I'm looking forward to many things in 2014. All my friends work at MTC, Malthouse, Belvoir.

But I'm also looking forward to re-finding my groove. I've got a number of projects lined up, things I'm fired up about. I get to be a practising theatre artist. How fucking cool is that?

SM: When reading Story of O, I wasn't sure if Gary was Rene or Sir Stephen, so I imagined him as both. It helped. I also knew Jane was playing whoever Gary wasn't, so I was really imagining a mash up of the two of them. It was strangely comforting.

It's hard to even think what else the O cast have done this year. Gary's Rene wasn't what I imagined; it was so much more. A combination of heart and heartless and selfish generosity that made complete sense – and showed us why O made that choice for him.  And there was the ice cream.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Part 14

Part 15

Part 16

Part 17

2012 part 1, with links to the rest

Woodhead on Wilson

There's a terrific interview with Robert Wilson in The Age today by Cameron Woodhead. Here.

Melbourne's been lucky to see Wilson's The Temptation of St Anthony (MIAF 07) and I La Galigo (MIAF 06), but the Perth Festival gets Threepenny Opera.

In the meantime, I'm trying to find a way to get to Perth to and have already done a happy dance knowing Einstein on the Beach is here in July.

Einstein in Melbourne again

In 1992, I caught the overnight bus from Adelaide to see Einstein On The Beach at the Melbourne Festival. I knew nothing about it, apart from the music was by Philip Glass (that guy with the neat film soundtracks) and that it had an almost mythical status as a masterpiece. This was my first time in the State Theatre and I didn't move for four-and-a-half hours.

First performed in 1976 in Europe and New York, Einstein launched the careers of director Robert Wilson and composer Phillip Glass. Its only Australian production was in 1992 and over twenty years later, there are five more exclusive Australian shows from 31 July to 4 August 2013.

There are shows that change how you see theatre; Einstein was one of those for me. Hundreds of shows later, I still haven't seen anything that's come close to it, including Wilson's I La Galigo and The Temptation of Saint Antony. 

With no narrative, its hypnotic meld of music, design and dance (Lucinda Childs) rejects any idea that communication is about text.

Overcoming a learning disability as a child, Wilson's earliest work was with disabled and brain injured children in the 60s. He used theatre games in hospitals and schools to enable and encourage communication with patients and children deemed unable to communicate. In one hospital show, his cast of patients were only able to make small movements with their hands or mouth. So he connected them all with photo sensitive string and showed how humans can visually communicate no matter how impossible it may seem.

His stage language developed from this time and it's why it's so hard to describe the experience of his work, because it's work that doesn't care for words.

Even more exciting than seeing The Temptation of St Anthony in 2007 was spending a couple hours in the State Theatre watching Wilson direct and perfect the first minutes of the show during a tech run. He's a scary director who demands respect with a precision that doesn't allow for vagueness, interpretation or spontaneity.  The first run of the show's opening was mesmerising. Then Wilson stopped the run and fixed it.

There was some spacing inconsistencies, he spent minutes directing someone how to sit on a chair, he told a hidden chorister at the back of the stage that he saw her move in her head before she moved on the stage, and he insisted on the exact speed of the removal of a piece of set (and that it was re-painted because there was some grey showing when it was lifted out). The next run of those minutes was already so different and by opening night it was perfect. These tiny details tend to go unnoticed, but that is what makes this director’s work so addictive. He takes a beautiful moment and makes it exquisite.

Tickets for Einstein in the Beach are available from 20 December at artscentremelbourne.com.au.

Here's Bob and Phillip (and Susan Sontag and David Byrne) talking about the reaction to Einstein  in 1976 in the film Absolute Wilson (seen at MIFF in 2006). Wilson produced it and sold tickets from $2 to $2000 and sat the $2 tickets next to the the $2000.

The Temptation of Saint Anthony

MIAF 2007
The Temptation of Saint Anthony
Melbourne International Arts Festival
13 October 2007
State Theatre, The Arts Centre

The problem of having high expectations is that they may not be met. The Temptation of St Anthony didn’t meet my expectations. It totally surpassed them. Musically, visually and emotionally it is exquisite. It gently grabs your soul and doesn’t let it go.

Robert Wilson (I La Galigo MIAF 2006, Einstein On The Beach MIAF 1992) is an undisputed master of western avant guard theatre. Last year we saw him his signature touch on traditional Indonesian dance. This year Melbourne sees his version of a musical. Wilson said he wanted a musical for this story because “it is universal and speaks an emotional universal truth”. The masters know the emotional power of musical theatre.

The Temptation of St Anthony ignores, subverts and breaks most conventions associated with musical theatre, but I can say that is simply the best and most powerful musical that I’ve ever seen.

Ironically Wilson doesn’t start with music when he directs. “I start with silence, then add the movement and at the end, the text or music”. He does, however, know how to find the most perfect musical collaborators. (Philip Glass composed Einstein On The Beach; Tom Waits composed The Black Rider.)

Bernice Johnson Reagon wrote the music for Saint Anthony. Halleluiah! Reagon was the founder and artistic director of the divine a capella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock. This score is based in the history of African-American music and culture and includes spirituals, blues, shouts, gospel, hymns, jazz, doo wop, hip hop and rock. The African-American cast of singers and dancers were selected for their mix of western training, church singing and folk orientation. She wanted a mix of old and young voices and they had to be able to move. Every member of this cast is sensational, even though Wilson takes away so many of their standard methods of communication.

Imagine the sound, the emotion and the movement of gospel singing. Now take away the individual personalities and take away any direct connection they have with each other and with the audience. The performers are performing for us, but never to us. They never look at the audience. It really is like they can’t see us. They also very rarely look at or touch each other, but are always working like an intricately connected machine.

Daniel Dodd Ellis plays St Anthony. He has a voice commands attention, whilst melting your heart. He is always on the stage, but he rarely sings. It’s not St Anthony’s story, but the story of his temptation and his journey. We don’t see character, but we do feel his emotion.

This may sound slightly disturbing. It is - and that is also why it’s so astonishingly effective. You don’t watch a Wilson show, you experience and feel it. It’s difficult to use words to describe the impact of a communicator who has so little use for words.

Wilson communicates with movement and colour. He developed this visual language by working with people who had severe difficulty communicating in our text based world. Wilson overcame a learning disability as a child and later worked extensively with disabled and brain injured children. Possibly his most important and powerful works have never been seen by the public. In the 60s he used theatre games in hospitals and schools to enable and encourage communication with patients and children deemed unable to communicate. In one hospital show his cast of patients were only able to make small movements with their hands or mouth. So he connected them all with photo sensitive string and showed how humans can visually communicate no matter how impossible it may seem. Wilson’s public frame and regard were established with his separate collaborations with the young artists Raymond Andrews (Deafman Glance) and Christopher Knowles (A Letter for Queen Victoria). Andrews is deaf and Knowles is autistic.

Some people don’t use words or eye contact or text to communicate. Wilson uses this style of language and that is why his theatre communicates so strongly with us, even if we don’t consciously understand how.

Everything on a Wilson stage is precise and controlled. There is no room for a spontaneous gesture, interpretation or even thought. This control becomes even more evident when the cast were released. During the curtain call, they bow and finally sing and dance as themselves. Suddenly the stage is filled with 16 unique personalities. The contrast is astounding and the emotional release of seeing them free is as powerful as seeing them contained.

Review of Absolute Wilson that originally appeared in The Pundit.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

2007 Melbourne International Festival Opens

2007 Melbourne International Festival Opens

 No more sleeps. Tonight is the opening of the Melbourne International Arts Festival. For the next 17 days we will be treated to an arts program that has silenced even the harshest critics. Much is already sold out, but there are still opportunities to buy tickets and an extensive free program.

Opening Night kicks off with a free family sing-a-long at 6pm in Federation Square with Grammy Award winning Dan Zanes and Friends.

The highlight of the festival’s first week also opens tonight. Last year we were treated to Robert Wilson’s mesmerising I La Galigo, in 1992 we had Einstein On The Beach. This year he returns with The Temptation of St Anthony. Yesterday afternoon I spent a couple of hours watching Wilson perfect a couple of minutes of this show during the dress rehearsal.

St Anthony is as astonishingly beautiful as the international reviews have said. Wilson creates art that somehow bypasses conscious thought and goes straight to your heart and soul. The gentle and almost haunting opening moments had me wiping away a tear, without even realising what I was feeling. The cast enter from the auditorium with bamboo bird puppets. Its so Lion King! I also cried in the opening scene of The Lion King, but this show is something so, so much more than a commercial musical.

This is music theatre of a calibre and standard we rarely see.

It is possibly Wilson’s most accessible piece. It’s sung in English, is under two hours and has a discernable story line. Starting from the figure of Saint Anthony in Flaubert's novel, this production asks questions about sin, goodness and the temptations of the flesh.

Wilson collaborated with Bernice Johnson Reagon to create Saint Anthony. Reagon is probably best known to our audiences as the founder and artistic director of the divine a capella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock. The score is based deeply in the history of African-American music and culture ranging from spirituals, blues, shouts, gospel, hymns, jazz and doo wop to hip hop and rock. It features an all African-American cast of singers and dancers and is accompanied by a live band led by music director Toshi Reagon. Toshi is Bernice’s daughter and also appearing with her own band BIGLovely at the Speigeltent. Toshi Reagon simply has a voice you can’t tear yourself away from.

Then there is the colour. The Festival’s Artistic Director Kristy Edmunds intrigued us last year by saying that Wilson invents colour before our eyes. I can promise you that you will never see lighting and colour as phenomenal as this again. Wilson and lighting designer AJ Weissbard paint the stage with an intricacy comparable to an impressionist master. The colours of I La Galigo were primary and striking. St Anthony’s are subtle and complex and rich. I cannot even begin to describe the multitudes of blue. I just know that I wanted to wrap myself in them. Colour and light are Wilson’s expression of feeling and emotion. He makes words irrelevant.

Wilson is a perfectionist. His precision leaves no room for vagueness or spontaneous artistic interpretation. In the rehearsal a few minutes of the show were perfected over two hours. The first run already had me mesmerized. Then Wilson fixed some spacing, spent minutes directing a performer to make one tiny step and insisted on the exact speed of the removal of a piece of set. These moments would be unnoticed by most, but that is what makes this director’s work so addictive. He takes an already beautiful moment and makes it exquisite.

The Temptation of St Anthony runs from tonight until Sunday at the State Theatre. There are still some tickets available, but be quick or you may miss this spectacular and astonishing work. Go to www.melbournefestival.com.au for details.

This story originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

MIAF preview 2007

MIAF Preview 2007
The Free Program

                                                                             John Cage

If I could have my perfect arts festival...Robert Wilson and Peter Brook would direct a show each. Laurie Anderson and Merce Cunningham would drop by. We’d hear lots of John Cage, there’d be a reworking of Shakespeare, contemporary Butoh, some outrageous cabaret, a fabulous festival club and lots of local artists. So, I’m excited about the 2007 Melbourne International Arts Festival program.

The Melbourne International Arts Festival (MIAF) runs 11–27 October. It's Artistic Director Kristy Edmunds third outstanding program. The 2005 and 2006 programs drew a degree of media (and other) criticism for being too far from the mainstream.

Melbourne’s arts audiences certainly don’t seem to mind. Surely those full houses and cheering audiences must count for something?

Edmunds says, “This year’s program presents artists who have, by definition, changed the possibilities of their art form for all time, and whose individual legacies continue to expand, astound and inspire.” The likes of Cunningham, Brooks, Wilson and Anderson don’t need me to promote them.

Edmunds artistic choice and aesthetic certainly isn’t mainstream. But just because you’re a Phantom of The Opera fan doesn’t mean you won’t love a show like Robert Wilson’s The Temptation of St Anthony. The Los Angeles Times said "Wilson drenches the stage in brilliant colour and beguiling movement. It is breathtaking to watch these singers possess the stage. Each is amazing.” If you like sing along music, spectacular costumes, incredible sets and a world class cast; why not give it a go. And you won’t get the B cast or have to pay for a program.

If you’re still not convinced that this festival is for you and you’d rather save for Priscilla, there are 20 free events in the program. You don’t have to spend a cent.

MIAF has a tradition of free events. The twist this year is that many are presented by the main program artists.

Opening Night kicks off with a family sing-a-long in Federation Square with Dan Zanes and Friends. Zanes was a hit at the 2006 festival and recently won himself a Grammy for Best Musical Album for Children. The night promises no minimalist or post modern compositions, just good old sing-your-guts-out fun.

On the other had, if you are partial to a touch of minimalism, get ready of an all nighter on Friday October 26. Starting at 6.48pm is John Cage’s Musicircus. It finishes at 5.20am. Based on a John Cage event first performed in 1967, it’s a large scale simultaneous performance event involving musicians, dancers, visual artists, poets and a pony. Audiences are invited to move around the BMW Edge anytime from dusk to dawn to explore the multiple performances. You never know who’ll be performing when, so have a nap during the day and be prepared for a coffee or two at 3am.

If you’re unfamiliar with Cage, there’s plenty of opportunity to get to know his work before committing to Musicircus. Often described as avant guard, Cage remains one of the most innovative musicians and artists of the last 60 years. One of his best known compositions is 4’33’ (Four Minutes, 33 Seconds). It’s a three movement work where all the notes are silent. To hear it played live is one of the most genuinely incredible musical experiences.

Cage’s way of looking at music, art and life will be on neon display in Federation Square throughout the festival. Cage Quotes is running daily on the ticker panels that usually promote upcoming events. The quote at the bottom of my emails is from Cage. "The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason.” I refer to it a lot when reviewing.

Cage was also the Music Director to Merce Cunningham Dance Company until his death in 1992. This festival will be remembered for bringing Merce Cunningham to Melbourne. Regarded as a pillar of modernism and simply known as the greatest living choreographer, Cunningham has led his own company since 1953. Always prizing invention over convention, Cunningham has consistently created new languages for dance.

The Merce Cunningham Dance Company is performing two programs at the State Theatre, but the highlight promises to be The Melbourne Event in Federation Square on Sunday 21 October. The piece will be created by Cunningham specifically for Melbourne and the Square. It will never be repeated and it’s free.

If by now you’re beginning to like this style of art, head to National Gallery of Victoria for the exhibitions from Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Johns is known as one of the founding fathers of pop, minimalism and conceptual art, while Rauschenberg is one of the leading figures in modern art. Both designed for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Then go to the Gertrude Contemporary Art space for Playground, an exhibition by Daniel Arsham, who has worked with Cunningham more recently.

Other Free Events in Federation Square events include:

•  Jon Rose’s Sphere of Influence on 23 October. Combining digital technology, live performance and a giant white ball rolling around the square at sunset.
• Orbotics [network] which fuses the ancient art of origami with robot technology. You’re invited to bring your bluetooth and wifi connected laptop, PDA or mobile phone to network and interact with the oribots.
• Hidden Inside Mountains at ACMI. With an original score by Laurie Anderson, this film was commissioned in EXPO 2005 in Aichi Japan.

Or, if you’re still a bit unsure about the work you see and have some questions, head to The Speigeltent every lunchtime to join Edmunds in discussion with festival artists.

"If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all."

John Cage

There is so much to see in the festival that is free. So why not try it for a couple of minutes or more. You may find it’s not what you expected. You may find an expression of beauty and wonder that you have not seen before. You may also discover why so many of us love these festival programs that don’t cater for the mainstream.

Here's director Kristy Edmunds talking about the program.

This originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

I La Galigo

MIAF 2006
I La Galigo
Melbourne International Arts Festival
19 October 2006
The Arts Centre, State Theatre

Robert Wilson’s I La Galigo was everything I expected it be. It is a gentle, hypnotic and perfectly beautiful work of live art. I am embarrassed for Melbourne’s arts community to see so many empty seats on its opening night at the Melbourne International Arts Festival.

I La Galigo is slightly different from a typical avant-guarde Wilson work. It’s only three hours long to begin with (Wilson on speed) and it is based on a narrative text. But Wilson fans don’t need to worry. There are still many slow crossings of the stage, the movement is precise, the communication visual and you can enjoy it without worrying about the story.

For those who like a narrative journey, this one is based on Sureq Galigo, an ancient epic poem of the Bugis people of South Sulawesi. There are surtitles to guide you, but reading the program before hand is advised. As stories go, this one is has it all - unrequited love, the threat of incest, intervention by the gods, child abandonment, a couple of great cats and a satisfying end.

This is a festival filled with explorations of new art forms and aesthetics, but I was apprehensive about the melding of traditional Indonesian with western avant-guarde. Then I saw the similarities, rather than the obvious differences. Traditional Indonesian dance drama is described as a “display of living drawings…. that are not intended to represent anything so much as to charm the mind”. Story unfolds slowly using strong visual images and almost no drama. This could describe Einstein on the Beach (Wilson’s best known work, seen at MIAF 1992).

The synthesis of the ancient and the (post) modern traditions is fascinating and unique. Wilson keeps the recognizable shapes and movements of Indonesian dance, but removes the individual performers personal and emotional interpretation. Yet the experience of the performance remains emotional and moving.

Colour and light are the passion of I La Galigo. It is difficult to describe the impact of colour in this production, but I now understand exactly what Kristy Edmunds meant when she said it invents colour before your eyes. The understanding of it is intuitive, rather than cognitive. We say we “see red” in anger. Wilson captures this exact red. It’s like a cross between a fire engine and a kiss-me-now red lipstick. His heaven is blue, but it’s unlike any blue I’ve seen. A perfect blue sky, mixed with a grey/purple sunset. It's comforting and inviting, but filled with hidden power and threat. Even his white is more than just white. And don’t get me started on the orange. Emotional impact aside, if you have any interest in light and colour in any artistic form, this is an un-missable production.

Text is almost irrelevant in the communication of I La Galigo, but it is chanted in the Bugis language. Fewer than 100 people speak this language today. This totally visual production is keeping an indigenous language alive. It has to be compared to last week’s Ngapartji Ngapartji , that shared an indigenous Australian language with us by teaching us how to speak it.

People did walk out and not return to I La Galigo. I appreciate that it can be a difficult style of theatre to understand, but the connection will come you just accept it, watch it and let it “speak” in its own way. The three hours is irrelevant. My only time check was two hours in and I was disappointed to realise just how much time had passed. Sure it could be told more quickly, but this an epic tale that deserves our respect and our time.

Interview

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

2006 Melbourne International Arts Festival preview

MIAF 2006
Program Preview
12-28 October 2006


The 2006 Melbourne International Arts Festival begins on October 12. Artistic Director Kristy Edmunds and her team have created a challenging, contemporary program that is vibrant and inspiring.

There is the usual degree of media controversy about this year’s offering. The Age described it as straying too far from the “traditional mix” and catering to “too few”. There were similar criticisms about Edmunds’ first program in 2005. However, I saw a lot of shows in that festival and they all had full houses and cheering audiences.
The 2005 program was filled with unfamiliar artists and companies, but they gave us unforgettable experiences and their work has become part of our local artistic language. The unknown gave us the freedom to enjoy the pure emotion created by art. I remember tears at Le Dernier Caravansérail (Odysées) (Théâtre du Soleil) and tears of laughter at Bloody Mess (Forced Entertainment). Thank you Kristy for straying from the “traditional mix” and letting us experience the authentic and the heartfelt.

So what does 2006 have to offer?

The program has a strong focus on collaboration across art forms and among artists. It explores artistic practice by rejecting barriers of culture, form, language, belief and place. By doing so, artists create new art forms and challenge our aesthetics. Robert Wilson invents colour (I La Galigo), Marie Brassard lets us hear human thoughts (Peepshow), Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto explore what music might look like (insen).

Australian art is presented with the same passion as the best international companies and artists. There are many Australian artists appearing, but they are not segregated as the “local” program. This is a truly international program, with no “us” and “them”.

With an extensive free program, you don’t have to spend to indulge in this event. Visit the Mostlandian Embassy, walk around the Visual Arts exhibitions and don’t miss Of All The People In All The World: Pacific Rim (Stan’s Café). There is also a selection of discount ticket packages available, and local artists can apply for an artist card that entitles them to discounted tickets and entry to the Festival’s artist lounge.

Children are encouraged to create their own art. Following the success of last year’s Kids Club is The Clubhouse – a purpose built venue just for younger audiences to enjoy workshops and performances. I was one of the very few adults privileged to see the Kids Club. It was encouraging, nurturing and just so much fun – children did not want to leave. This year kids can also take their grown ups to the interactive Children’s Cheering Carpet (Teatro di Piazza o d'Occasione) and on the kids’ Visual Arts trail.

Last year Kristy proved that she respects the festival audience and trusts us to find our own path in the program. So, trust this Artistic Director, grab the festival guide and take a chance on someone you are not yet familiar with. My path looks kind of like this:

George Orwell’s 1984 (The Actors Gang). Tim Robbins’ company (yes - the one from the movies). Their mission is to bring socially relevant theatre to a broad public. 1984 reminds us of where we could be without he freedom to express our opinions.

I La Galigo (Robert Wilson). Robert Wilson is one of the creators of Einstein On The Beach. If, like me, you sat mesmerised at the MIAF performances in 1992, you know that a Robert Wilson production is unmissable. If you saw Absolute Wilson  at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival, this is your chance to experience the theatre he creates. I La Galigo is unique, visionary theatre that truly overcomes limits off belief, country and aesthetic. A cast of over 50 Indonesian performers present the epic poem, Sureq Galigo. This may mean very little to us now, but I believe it will be etched into our hearts by the end of the performance. Earlier this week I spoke to the Assistant Director about the creation of the work and what it was like to work with Wilson. Look out for the full story soon.

Blind Date (Bill T Jones/Anrie Zane Dance Company). A multinational company that explore national identity by melding dance with video, live music and monologue.

Voyage (dump type). This Japanese collective create surreal and illusionary work that merges all disciplines.

Ngapartji Ngapartji means, “I give you something, you give me something”. This project has always been one of sharing culture, language and stories. With a cast including elders and young people from the Pitjantjatjara community, the work in progress performance sold out last year. This year we see the world premiere of an epic Australian story that blends the familiar with the unfamiliar. Look out for Christina Cass’ interview with the company in the coming weeks.

Peepshow. Marie Brassard peeps into the forbidden - the perversons, deviations and vargaries of love. Intriguing enough – but it also uses digital technology to totally re-mix Bressard’s voice.

Tragedia Endogonidia BR.#04 Brussels (Societás Raffaello Sanzio). Text is abandoned as a powerful physical language unfolds. A world of emptiness, devoid of warmth. This is not for the faint hearted.

blessing the boats. When poet Sekou Sundiata needed a kidney, five of his friends volunteered theirs. He tells his very personal story by simply talking to us.

Mantalk (Thomas and Wells). This project starts with episodes 4 to 7 at the Melbourne Fringe. If you enjoy it, then episodes 11 to 16 continue at the Festival.

insen (Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto). Acoustic piano and electronic music. Two generations of artists explore new musical structures. Remember the soundtrack to Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence? Sakamoto composed it.

Ethel. Forget what you think string quartet should be – just come and experience their “distinctive fun, spunk and groove”.

The Ringtone Society. Bringing together adventurous musicians and composers to create a new and unique musical form – the ringtone. And we can download them to our phones.

The Tulse Luper Suitcase Film Trilogy (Peter Greenaway). Promising to be “even more unorthadox than his previous work” . If you like Greenaway – what more do you need to know! Apart from - there is an interactive online game that accompanies the films.

This story originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

I La Galigo: The Colour of Heaven

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL 2006
Interview with Rama Soeprapto, Assistant Director of I La Galigo

One of the most anticipated events of the 2006 Melbourne International Arts Festival is the Robert Wilson epic I La Galigo. I have only seen one of Wilson’s works (Einstein On The Beach, MIAF1992). Visceral, mesmerising and visually addictive, it was enough to change my concept of what theatre can be. Last week I spoke with I La Galigo Assistant Director, Rama Soeprapto, about working with Wilson, the international reception of this work and the colour of Heaven.

With a cast of over 50 of Indonesia’s finest performers, I La Galigo was developed through a workshop process in Bali. Uniting theatre, dance, music and poetry, it is inspired by Sureq Galigo, a centuries old epic poem of the Bugis people of South Sulawesi.

Working with a traditional narrative is an unusual course for director Robert Wilson. He has been described by The New York Times as “A towering figure in the world of experimental theatre”. Since the late 1960s his productions in the US and Europe have defined the avant guard, whilst questioning and shaping the look of theatre and opera.

Rama Soeprapto’s respect and admiration for “Bob” is very clear, as is his love for this production. His background is dance, visual arts, film and video, and told me he got the job by convincing Wilson that, “I’m here to learn and I really want work hard”.

His primary role was to translate Wilson’s vision to the artists of the cast. This not only involved translating language, but explaining contrasting, and somewhat contradictory, concepts of theatre and performance.
Sureq Galigo has traditionally been told through dance. Soeprapto explains that the traditional Indonesian way of dance is based on feelings. “Dances use their feelings to perform in the moment”. A performance is flexible, personal and unique.

This is very different from the Wilson tradition, where every nuance of the slightest gesture is an integral part of the performance. This visual language developed through his determination to give context and meaning to artists who are unable to express themselves in a text based world. Having overcome his own childhood learning disability, he started working in hospitals and schools, using theatre games to enable and encourage communication with patients and children unable to communicate. It was here that Wilson discovered the power of the smallest gesture and begun his ongoing investigation into the structure of simple movement.
Soeprapto says, “Bob is very precise…very detailed about how you stand and move.” There is no room for an artist’s changing emotional interpretation in a Wilson work.

Fortunately the melding of western avant guard and the traditional Indonesian has created something stunning. I La Galigo has received critical acclaim in Singapore, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Madrid, Lyon, Ravenna and New York, but it was the reaction of the Jakarta audience that has established this production as truly remarkable.

The Indonesian audience know and love this story. Soeprapto says the Sureq Galigo is something they “know from their ancestors” and “have in their minds”. There was naturally some concern about the Wilson interpretation. Fortunately, the Indonesian audiences were “flabbergasted”, when they saw their story “done in such a good way.”

I La Galigo is one of the many works in the 2006 MIAF program that focus on collaboration among differing art forms and the creation of new aesthetics. Artistic Director, Kristy Edmunds, described I La Galigo as “inventing colour right before our eyes”. Intrigued by her description I asked Soeprapto about colour.

He simply replied that “the genius side of Bob Wilson” is how he brings colour into a performance. He will spend a week perfecting a colour. Inspired by the natural world, he will also make artists go outside and feel the grass. To recreate the colour, the image and the feeling of grass – they have to know what it physically feels like. Finally Soeprapto asked me if I could imagine “what colour blue Heaven looks like”. Wilson knows, and I am very looking forward to seeing the blue, the green and every other colour of I La Galigo.

This interview originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

Film: Absolute Wilson

MIFF 2006
Absolute Wilson
Forum Theatre
1 August 2006



Absolute Wilson is an interesting documentary about a theatre director that does not convey the power of Wilson's work.

I saw Wilson’s Einstein On the Beach in 1992. Part meditation, part spectacle, pure experience – and  one of the most phenomenal nights I have ever spent in a theatre.

Director Katharina Otto-Bernstein is also an admirer, which influences her choices. The film avoids criticism, and contribution by significant Wilson collaborators is noticeably absent.

Very successful is her exploration of how Wilson developed his unique theatrical language. Possibly his most powerful works have never been seen in public. Wilson used theatre games in schools and hospitals to enable communication with patients and children who were “unable” to communicate. I would love to have seen The Black Rider (Wilson/Tom Waits/ William Burroughs collaboration), but even better would have been a piece performed in a hospital in the late 60s. The cast were patients who could only make small movements with their hand or mouth. They were connected by photosensitive string. They created a visual language showing they could communicate.

Wilson’s public frame and regard were established by his collaborations with young artists Raymond Andrews (Deafman Glance) and Christopher Knowles (A Letter for Queen Victoria).  Andrews is deaf and Knowles is autistic. The acclaimed works created language that gave context & meaning to people unable to express themselves in a text and word based world.

There was criticism of these collaborations, even hints of exploitation. This was not pursued, and neither Andrews (who is also Wilson’s adopted son) nor Knowles were interviewed for the film.

Absolute Wilson gave me a greater understanding of an artist I admire. I would have liked more debate and wish the film could have captured the experience of being in theatre. Fortunately, this can be achieved by seeing his new work at the Melbourne International Arts Festival in October.

This appeared in The Pundit