Silent(…)ground
dance-theatre-media performance/music by Tori Amos
script , video-art concept and stagedirecting by OZANA BUDAU
choreography by BIA ANA ADAM
performers: BIA ANA ADAM and BENEDEK BOTOND
Silent(…)ground is the story of a woman, Boba, whose life is similar to winning a h: the 5 episodes (each of it connected to the 5 squares of the hop-scotch) of the script are actually5 zoom-ins in her existence, and just by interposing the events, one can hold a whole picture of her life.
This is a story about crisis and transformation, about giving up silence and words, about the illusion of passing to the other side of a neverending hop-scotch.
Boba is an inadapted, alienated person, a lucid thinker who submits her body and mind to several experiences to the purpose of finding a meaning to her life, of becoming someone special, of getting a sense of personal coherence. Paradoxically,she understands, at the end of each event that nothing has absolute meaning, that no one or nothing is that important to her so she would terminate her quest. Her life is methaphorically marked by two fundamental actions: the act of giving up being silent (as she beging the process of becoming) and the act of giving up words (of losing herself).
Characters:
The male character is a succession of male figures from Boba’s life.He oscillates along the 5 episodes between the artistic expression of an abstract masculinity :DarkM and its materialisation to two male characters:The Lover and the Father.
Space Design:
1.Outside the hopscotch (before the characters have entered it)=the nonpronlematic,non tragical universe od childhood;
2.Inside the hop-scotch=common society which determines the individual to play several psychological, social roles, to assume responsibilities;the limited, full of compromises life;
3.Ouside the hop-scotch(after it was entered) =nothingness, the void;
Structure:
Installation space:subliminal messages videoprojected on a white screen (call me angel/call me glamorous bitch/Father and I are One/Time to run/to the other side/side of what things).
Song:Raining Blood
Prologue:
Boba is giving up silence. Words burst out of her into mute facial movements, choking her.They break out violently out her larynx, tearing her face to pieces, disfiguring the dark around her. A silent howl. Boba vomits spasmodically her inner story. The mute roar changes into the spasms and screams of giving birth to a child. DarkM (the abstract masculinity,the active principle of transformation gives birth to Boba.He cleans her gently, he dresses her, he lifts her lovingly into her arms and throws her away inside the h.Her story is about to begin.
Song:I can’t see New York
Video-projection: a video-clip of a couple dancing the tango.
Episode 1
Kinky ground
Characters: Boba, the Loser, the Artist, the Clubber;
Boba is a teenager.She perceives her life as a game.She is a performer, an entertainer, an exhibitioner.Her purpose in life is to please the others.She has a dual nature:angel and demon.The rules by which she plays are relative and changeable. She believes in superficiality, fake, kitsch, ambiguity.
This episode is the recollection of three relationships pictured in three different moments:the beggining of her relationship with the Loser;the climax of her relationship with the Artist;the end of her relationship with the Clubber;
The Loser:
· innocent, naive,unsure of him, shy,unexperimented, low self-esteem, a bit ridiculous;
· easy to manipulate, malleable,lack of will;
· he adores Boba;
· human subject for Boba to practise on, to comprehend the human male, to discover his weaknesses;
Scene1
Boba and the Loser are getting ready to go out clubbing.Their gestures suggest first-date nervosity, excitement.The two of them meet by accident.Boba flirts with him, invites him to dance. Their dancing is the image of their relationship. She doesn’t let him touch her, yet she feels and touches him thoroughly.She manipulates him as if he is a puppet on a string.during the dance,he is more and more drained out and powerless.At the end, she pushes him out of the hop-scotch.He is useless now.hop-scotch
The Artist:
· arrogant, stylish, pedant;
· famous expert in taking women’s photos;
· involved in many relationships, yet he desconsiders women;
· to him,Boba is just a ephemeral muse; he is soon bored with her;
Scene2:
Boba has fled from home (as she has a disagreement problem with her father).She is a dancer in a nightclub. This is where she meets tha Artist whor seduces her and maks her his one-time-stand muse. His bad influence changes her, she becomes more treacherous, she learns how to play different parts, she becomes a chameleon, she has multiple identities. None of them is emotionally involved.They just benefit from one another. The h has become a catwalk whereBoba passes through a succession of cliche -images (Venus of milo, Gioconda,Cover Girl,Mother Mary, Marylin Monroe).
The Clubber:
· he is passionate, organic, fan of extreme sensations;
· alcoholic, drug-addict;
· he wants to experience dangerous things;
· a seducer; he lives every moment to the fullest;
· father of Boba’s child; he forcers her to have an abortion;
· he sees her a sexual object;he doesn’t love her;
· he is the first man that boba is in love with her;
Scene3
The two of them are at a party. They are both drunk and drugged and engaging in sexual activity. She is making another attempt to seduce him and to make him commit. She fails. His indiiference determines her to kill him. Boba smothers him, then draggs him all around the surface erasing the chalk lines of the hop-scotch. Boba has given up on men. She has learned to hate them.
Videoprojections:call me angel/call me glamorous bitch/call me starfucker/i am desire/you’re too easy;
Songs:Wednesday, Raspberry swirl, Datura;
Videoprojections: a white and black video-clip of a classic ballerina.
Episode2:
Play ground
Characters:
Boba, Father;
This is the story of Boba becoming a man.She learns to act, feel , think like a man from the persons in her life. Her first relationship with a man is the one with her father. The dynamic of the relationship gos like this: Boba, dominated by her father; both equally powerful, Boba dominating her father. The third man from her life is (the second is her Lover) is Boba herself: the postmodern woman; the male-woman;
the Father:
· classical dancer and ballet teacher;
dominant, powerful figure, overwhelming, fascinating personality, highly critical of others;
· conservative and aiming for perfection;
· perceived by Boba as her mentor;
· cold, unaffectionate and distant to Boba;
· he wants her to become a perfect ballerina;
Their relationship is choreographically expressed as a metaspeech about dancing ( the modern dancing taking over the classic ballet);
Scene1:
Her father is giving her a dancing lesson.He controls her totally. He wants to make her a Copycat. She behaves like a puppet on a string, she desperately seeks for his approval, she is afraide of him and has low self-esteem.
Scene2:
A few years later. She rebells against him (as she has just experienced Kinkyground) and she shows him her own way of dancing.
Scene3.
The disciple has surpassed her mentor. Boba has become an excellent dancer (but a modern one). She dominates her father totally and she metaphorically anihilates him, paralyzing his feet and arms by means of contemporary dance movements.At the end, her father hits the ground on the hop-scotch whic has become a fighting ring. She counts down his knock out.
Video-projections: excuse me but can I be you for a while/ father’s dancing girl’ father and I are one/ my dad is getting soft;
Songs: Mother, Mr.Zebra, Riot Poof;
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