“The biggest thing for us in House/Lights was that thing about learning not to anticipate what you are going to see on the televisions - in the same way that a lot of acting teachers talk about not anticipating how you are going to feel in a certain scene and to always be open and responsive.” - LeCompte
House/lights (1998), which is directed by Elizabeth LeCompte was regarded as one of the wooster group’s signature productions. The play based on Gertrude Stein’s Dr Faustus Lights the Lights(1939) and film Olga’s House of Shame which directed by Joseph Mawra. Some reviewers described the play as deconstructive; some as neo-cubist (Brantley, 1999). LeCompte talked about their Faust interests said “On one level it went seamlessly into the Olga’s House of Shame film beacause of the relationship with Olga as leader of the girl-gang. The voice-over even calls Olga ‘the devil herself’. And then there’s the power struggle with Elain and Olga and Faust and Devil. It had a symmetry to it ”. This dynamic link has helped me to define the use of footage for my final work. I will continuous working on editing footages and trying to raise relationships from it.
The play reinforced for many Stein’s own deconstructive understanding. Sten’s own deconstructive reading of Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights evokes sense of nostalgia for a golden age of American avant-gard art. It was acknowledged that Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights is considered to be one of Stein’s landscape plays, and the play nevertheless evolves of the earlier work and shares many dramaturgical features with it. The group’s work examined the undertaking of Sten’s concept “theatre as landscape”, which Fuchs calls “a signature style of contemporary experimental theatre”in American. (Callens: 192). Indeed Stein’s work concentrated on the materiality of language, entity writing.
Moving on to visual perspective, the set was a mechanical grid. Ramps and rails divided the playing area into a series of parallel tiers. Televisions displayed the editing footage which reflected a similarity of performers‘ actions. It evoked the audience realize the true value of performance screens. The action, occurring on rails behind the monitor, pushed the performance to an new level of energy and excitement.
In its exploration of new media, it has also made audiences aware of the process of the work. LeCompte sliced off the audience’s gaze, mentally broken down the time and the space into “screen” and “off screen”, real and surreal. Valk's intelligent performance, controlled humorous and charismatic. The play have delivered an deconstructive reading of Faust’s legend.
16 June 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment