THESE HORSES
INTERVAL (A Piece for Voice and Lightswitch)
Gallery/ studio piece for two performers: 15minutes.
Two performers equipped with desk lamps deliver a text in an otherwise dark space. The piece is made up of a series of textual items. These items are paired - one is spoken in the light and one in the dark. The textual information in the performance has multiple linkages and logics running through it that combine in various ways across the performance, but can never be quite 'solved'
Light Dark
The windows in the house - left open
The things from the house - scattered
Little Johnny on his way to his new job - in the army
Part of an ongoing exploration of text in performance – this piece, with its stark contrasts – allows for abrupt juxtapositions of linguistic ‘objects’. Looking at the politics of oppositional logic and joke structure in the spoken word, there is a play between the light, in which you can see the speaker, and the dark, in which you can only hear their voice, allowing location, body, and time/space to be called into question.
“a performance of text, with the text as unashamedly primary rather than as secondary to a larger dramatic event, or to story-telling, or to 'character' portrayal…helped by the style of delivery; understated and yet pointing up the artifice through switching on and off those lights… facing-outwards, without declamation. Performance Writing.” John Hall
At present this is a 15 minute piece which has been performed in the main auditorium at Arnolfini Bristol, the Gallery at Dartington College and as part of a poetry event at Plymouth Arts Club. We hope to develop this piece further into a larger scale studio work.
SPEAKERS - Performance, photography and the loud page.
