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.Publicity image for The Echo Chamber
At the dress rehearsal on 26th January, I felt I was seeing the work for the first time. It always seems a paradox - work that you know so intimately suddenly transforms, becoming itself once the lights and sound are in place and what we might call the performers’ score, fully embodied, comes to the fore.
Phillip and I wrestled with the programme notes, trying to condense the subject matter and its influences – which suddenly seemed to encompass everything from Quantum mechanics and Japanese Death poetry to Ernest Hemingway’s clipped, stilted dialogue from A Farewell to Arms - into a cohesive blurb. Flowers arrived. A reviewer emailed to arrange comp’ tickets. Tea was made. A soundtrack carefully arranged and selected by Peader was burnt onto several CDs. I swept the stage. The performers walked through some choreography. Ace ran a cue to cue. Coffee was made. Phillip and Ian began their warm-up for the premiere. I chose my seat carefully, then sat in the warm, quiet auditorium, emailing my sister, telling her this was one of my favourite moments in life – sitting in a warm, quiet auditorium as the performers warmed up on stage and the technician made his own preparations in the lighting box.
Ace put on the pre-show music and lights. Phillip and Ian went through some yoga sequences and breathed together, then went backstage to the dressing room. The house opened and the audience came in. The lights went down and the performance began.
PROGRAMME NOTES: THE ECHO CHAMBER
Two men…something splintering through the skin.
99% of the human body is made of just 6 elements…
…something immeasurable is unaccounted for….
A poetic/performative meditation on time, memory, and our place in the universe. Informed by Quantum theory, and ancient/current thinking about matter, cosmology, and the infinite.
Performers: Ian Morgan, Phillip Zarrilli
Text and dramaturgy by Kaite O’Reilly with contributions from the company
Direction and sound design by Peader Kirk
Design and Lighting by Ace McCarron
27-28 January, 2-4 February 2012, 8pm. Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff.
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