i hope i have the right heading…cuz there were three performers.

i have to be honest. it was the last performance of the night. i was tired. i wanted to go home. and so…after sitting and « waiting » for the performance to begin with the steady beat of the music going on and on…and then « figuring out » that the « performance » was actually happening not in the pool but in the « dining room » next to the pool i assumed it was that and i started to pack up to go home.

by « that » i mean i thought the performance was about creating an expectation of something through the steady beat of the music, the silver circle on the floor of the pool, to then be a performance about not entering the « stage » but rather occupying the wings and holding your presence. i thought it would end like that. this guy dressed in some costume referencing roman times, this other person with a head and body suit on with gold feet (actually the person in the roman costume tenderly rubbed the gold on the feet of the body suit person with his hands…i did see that part.)

but luckily i figured out there were actually two people with gold feet dressed identically with hoods and body suits of a pale ochre colour. and these two figures were heading towards the pool. very slowly. very ceremoniously. like some ritual was going on. some ritual from a time before us, or some ritual from a dream landscape.

the movement was tentative. the pool was attained. the two figures lowered themselves into the pool. they came together, the one cutting « the heart » out of the other and flinging it away to the far end of the pool. blood oozed out. then the one figure embraced the other, blood shot out, they slowly rolled down to the end of the pool. the roman guy made it to the pool (which was not an easy thing….i think he couldn’t see with his mask on and would have had to have counted out his footsteps and memorized the space before beginning the performance.)

then the figures and the roman dude left, just as slow and processional as when they entered.

i really had the feeling of some enactment by figures from another time that were outside of my time. i felt as if i was a witness to a scene i could not intervene in or know. the figures did not interact with our world. they were of another world.

however, i also think it is very possible that there were specific references going on that i, either because i am anglo or because i am too old, did not get.

there definitely was a measured and serious atmosphere, countered with the tin-foil mask of the roman guy and the theatrical « blood. » but it worked. i mean, the performance had an integrity. i didn’t leave thinking the performance didn’t work. i left with a sentiment of witnessing something i did not understand, but which possessed a coherent quality.

i am hoping the authors of the work will add to this blog entry and illuminate me. not because the work needs to be illuminated to function, but because i am genuinely curious…and i have a strong sense they would have something to say..x.