Wednesday 24th February 2010
6.30pm
Now With Feeling (Part III) – Danelle Lee
La Mama Theatre
Something Andrew Morrish (Australian perfomance improvisor) used to do when we would do workshops with him and we would do a showing at the end of it was he would bring up all of the things that had happened during the week – the ideas, all of the little things that happened, the idiosyncrasies. He would say that was fine because you are playing for the audience that is in front of you and the audience has a prior knowledge and understanding of what happened. Therefore doesn’t it makes sense to deliver to them that information -in this way it is very specific for this audience in this time. I have always thought about performance, with the the idea of the genius of the auteur or auteurs. I think about work that will stand the test of time, work that is universal. But if Andrew is to be believed then the fact it is contemporary (of its time) and specific is the beauty of it.
I went to see Now with Feeling at La Mama on Wednesday night and I think that I enjoyed it more because i know who Rob McCredie is and I know who Fiona Bryant is and so i am tracking with them their own journey and experience of the past performances (and indeed their lives) into this show.
In China Willoh and I talked about whether our art translates across to a Chinese context or not. This is not just about language but also cultural. But even more than this – which particular works don’t need the understanding of who Martyn and Willoh are and what they do, to understand the work. People who know us and know the place we come from have a deeper knowledge of the work – but should this be relied upon? shouldn’t work be able to stand on its own?
In terms of Now With Feeling, I found myself laughing (and totally loving) Fiona dancing around in a weird way that is not beautiful or choreographically collected? Am i laughing because i know her and i know her process? or am I laughing because it is actually funny?
I guess that brings about a whole bunch of questions about what art is and how it functions. Live performance work is temporal and fleeting, then perhaps we need to attach it to place and time so that you can have context in which to view the work, otherwise the meaning dissipates. Performance becomes more about cultural ritual and tradition. Perhaps this is what ritual initially was – it was temporal performance work that became so well known and grounded in a time, place and with particular people that it became a ritual.
I recently saw Luke George’s showing of his new work Now…Now..Now. and I found it to be incredibly layered because I was there when these things were decided (I was the video artist in the first development) and the particulars of the scores or structures were set up. But how did other people see it?
But back to Now With Feeling, this piece is challenging – not least because it always feels like the performers are playing with a structure that is so loose that the energy feels like it could drop out of the piece at any moment. The opportunity for failure is very high, and therefore parts of it didn’t work and didn’t hang together. There were times I wanted more time spent on composition – as at times the randomness felt unfocused and not necessarily supportive of the ideas. The lighting and sound felt abrupt at times and in a space like La Mama where you can see and hear everything there is no hiding.
I found most of the pieces that involved the audience were strong and well thought through, in a small audience like we had on the night I went – it was very challenging for some audience members. I thought that most of the movement pieces made sense as well, it was only some of the choices in text that i felt let down.
Overall the three performers are the anchorpoints of the piece and we follow them as they drift us through the disparate world. They are the very subtle guides who lead us by the hand through the experience.
This was the first piece I have seen that brings into the piece the smashing of bottles (or plates) which has been a hallmark of most La Mama productions, indeed the prior knowledge of this particular observation give me a giggle.
