Thirty – The Performance.

Last night we finally performed Thirty for the first time. I say the first time, as we had never rehearsed it at it’s full length. A decision which had both its pro’s and con’s. I feel that the piece strives on spontaneity and the performers being challenged for real. If we had rehearsed the eating of the pizza or the drinking of the water, we would of had time to prepare ourselves for the effects they had on us. Thus, I believe creating an unauthentic performance. I am fascinated by the concept of performers having to partake in some ‘for real’ in order to make the performance as realistic as possible. We never ‘acted’ the drinking of the water, we actually did it. The discomfort and panic on our faces, as we raced toward the end of the piece were real. This can be likened to the work of many contemporary and solo performers, such as Marina Abramovic. Abramovic endures real pain and exhaustion in her endurance pieces; she never ‘acts’; but performs a task to her audience. Sometimes the tasks that she undertakes are incredibly simple, such as eating an onion. As task that is much more difficult than it may seem!! Please see this video from 2.12 to see an example of this at work…

 

It was in the last 10 minutes of the performance that I felt the relationship between myself as a performer and the audience. For the first twenty minutes, the audience had sat and watched us perform our monotonous tasks. Twenty minutes into the performance, I became aware of just how much of the tasks we had left to complete. I felt a strong sensation of frustration with myself, for not having snapped enough cocktail sticks and began to share them between the other performers in order that we could attempt to get the task completed. Here, I felt a recognition from the audience that I was panicking, they suddenly realised that the point of the piece was for us to complete all of the tasks. As I forced my self to drink more and more water and beer, I could feel the audience willing me to continue. This was obviously completely a feeling that I felt in my own head, but I do believe that I made a connection with the audience. A reassuring laugh from them as I staggered with beer in one hand and pizza in the other, pushed me to continue.

To make a completely honest statement, I have to say that I am disappointed that we did not manage to complete all of the tasks, but this leads us to think of different ways in which we could refine and change the piece. Perhaps experimenting with one task at a time, would have been easier. To eat 18 slices of pizza each and for that to have been the whole performance, is something that I would like to try. My main concern about the piece once it has finished, was that I hoped the audience didn’t feel as if we had failed them. Of course, we did fail in completing all of the tasks; but in the feedback I have had from audience members they could see, feel and sense the amount of effort we were putting in and this compensated us not finishing.

Please read my further blog post, for notes on how I believe we could develop the piece.