This work for the stage explores the theater of inner conflict through a series of short, experimental pieces, each based on a different one-line poem and a matching animal archetype. Each part of the cycle explores the poem through both scientific and folkloric, both physical and figurative approaches to the animal. And each develops through the group's very particular kinetic, experimental process -- so each emerges wildly different in form from the others. The first three parts performed at Dixon Place and at the Capital Fringe Festival in Washington, D.C., in 2009, earning rave reviews, like this from DC Theatre Scene: "The sheer magnitude of the performance, the artistry that was presented in the space, dwarfs whatever sort of lyricism I may attempt in describing what I was privy to. Simply put, it was amazing. It was compelling, it was emotional, it was formative and moving."
"Moocha: I See a Fly on My Plate" explores the visceral relationships between Self & Other, Mine & Yours. It is neither dance nor theater nor video art in any of their established forms. Rather, it is an almost silent descent and excavation that plunges into the internal blindness that isolates us from ourselves and that we project onto others.
The "plot": In a projected video, a very civilized woman comes to a restaurant. She is served a wonderful dish by a provocative, Kali-like waitress with many arms. The woman sees a fly on her plate. This triggers an internal reaction that plays out live on the stage and leads to the murder of a human/fly and the simultaneous transformation of the women into the fly and the fly into a human.
"Horse: I Have My Heart in Front of Me" is a tapestry of narratives that range from the recitation of a whimsical, ancient Chinese folk tale to personal documentary monologues from the performers to medical lectures, all woven together within a dreamlike umbrella narrative. It delves into all kinds of heart issues -- romantic love, the love of fathers, love for the theater -- and the ever-looming threat of heart attacks, both literal and figurative, and the lasting trauma they can cause. It contains kinetic dance of sorts, monologue, dialog, some primitive singing, a puppet theater and a good dose of whinnying.
"Goat: I Cannot Fit into My Own Shoe" is the third part of the Cycle. However, we consider "Goat" only halfway developed. We intend for it to break away from "Horse" and "Fly" and become a stand-alone piece, still part of the cycle but its own full night of performance. "Goat" is the keystone of the cycle: It associations across cultures resound deep in the human psyche, and we want to get much further down into those depths.
In its current form "Goat" functions well as an exploration of images and symbols surrounding a central theme of conception and the resulting tensions of the mother-daughter relationship. The piece sprung out of "I cannot fit into my own shoe" and months of research – both on and off the stage – into the literature and pan-cultural significance of the goat, moving from the theme of sacrifice and self sacrifice into conception and birth, in both biological and creative senses.
The central narrative hangs on an old and well-known Russian fairy tale, the story of Alyonushka and Ivanushka, an orphaned sister and brother forced to fend for themselves, a task made doubly difficult when Ivanushka, thirsty and ignoring the pleas of his sister, drinks water from the hoof print of a goat and transforms into the animal itself. The distraught girl marries a king, so she and her brother can survive, and one day a witch arrives and traps Alyonushka under the river, assuming her shape and her role in the palace. The goat must save his sister, so she can save him from the witch who wants him dead. This tale is framed by the story of "Polina", a woman enduring strange dreams and having problems conceiving who, having received no aid from psychiatrists, turns to a fortune teller for help.
However, rather than utilizing a merely linear narrative structure, "Goat" presents the audience with an interwoven series of images and actions, including a marriage ritual, and a range of texts and songs, from Rilke to W.B. Yeats to old children's songs to a freely adapted text from Andrei Tarkovsy's Mirror and Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible, Part I. All of these extract further layers and elements strung together precisely but with a hidden logic, so that each member of the audience must engage in interpreting 'meaning' for itself as the polynarrative unfolds.
Notable design elements include the fortuneteller's crystal ball, a spherical shadow-puppet chamber created by Jessica Scott, illuminated from within by colored lights and worked by an unseen puppeteer. The piece also utilizes visually impressive puppet-like extensions for the human body – easily put-on and removed goat legs, among them. However, all of the physical elements of the piece live in the performance space from the beginning of the piece to the end, transforming from one object into another as needed. Additionally, the piece opens with a four-minute, silent, 8mm film, created by the company.
The following pieces to develop will be "Snake: I want to get out of my own skin" and "Bear: I hide my corpse well," as well as the epilogue "Birds: The wind blows my door open". We plan to create them over the next several years, presenting all the pieces repeatedly along the way and then performing the Cycle as a whole at the end.
