It was cold and rainy. Why is Japan so boring this time round? What is different this time? Or was it because I was not feeling too well? Or is it really just the weather?
Looking forward to spend last few days in Tokyo just chilling out with my Jap friend’s family and her friends. I remember the last time I was in their company 11 years ago. Man.. time flies.
So much has flew past in the past week or so. So much has happened.
Looking forward.
Even in editing, it really depends on your integrity to the subject / idea / concept; if you’re honest with the story you started with.
It was strange that I noticed differences in people’s personalities when we are traveling, and not just this time in Kyoto, but when I was traveling with different groups of people.
Some people choose to be kia su about everything that should happen when they travel.
Some people choose to just let everyone else do everything for them; since they are on a trip and it should be relaxing for them.
Some would make sure that everyone else on the trip had a good time.
Some people just allow the trip to unfold itself. Me.
.. it’s all i can remember.. the happy times we had.. I’d died, surviving.. smile.. crying..
Writeup about the play:
A man loses his daughter to a car accident. Nothing now is what it is. The man who was driving the car is a stage hypnotist. Since the accident, he has lost the power of suggestion. His act is a disaster. For him, everything now is exactly what it is. For the first time since the accident, these two men meet when the Father volunteers for the Hypnotis’s act. And he really doesn’t know the words or the moves…
In an oak tree, the Hypnotist is played by Tim Crouch and the Father by a different guest actor at each performance. They walk on stage having neither seen nor read a word of the play they’re in until they’re in it. This is a breath-taking projection of a performance, given from one actor to another, from a hypnotist to his subject, from an audience onto the stage.
an oak tree is a bold and absurdly comic new play about loss, suggestion and the power of the mind. It contains a dazzling balance of gripping story, rich theatricality and shocking humour.
When I first read about it, I’d thought that the actors did not know what the play was about right till the start of the show, and that all the different actors will be on stage together with the director. Trust me to have read it wrong. *sighs*
Well, the actors DO know the general story line, and as the play progresses, the direct suggests / tells the actor what to do as it progresses. Karen, the actor in the show that I saw, was at first stunned, funny, ended up falling into the character and became rather emotional.
The stage was simple, with a single stool in the middle, 2 large speakers, and a table where ‘props’ were put out to be used during the play itself.
All through the play, all sorts of music / sounds were played to suggest different stage settings. The director would sometime talk to Karen off the mic, through a device which only Karen could hear through her ear piece, and sometimes, through the mic where the audience could hear him giving instructions.
The lighting mainly stayed the same.
So it’s kind of a minimalist play with the actor being directed ‘live’ by the director. Yet, it feels infinitely filled by the intricate twists and turns of the story as it unfolds. The audience does not have a chance to take a breath, except when the actor asked for a glass of water. At that point, it seems, the audience took the breath together with the actor. At that point, it seems, we were suddenly feeling for the actor, and the character she’s playing. We’ve been hypnotized by the hypnotist played by the director.
It must be tough. A woman playing a man. A burly strong man. It was hard to notice any change in her voice, since she normally sounds rather manly. *grin* All through, I can’t help but think about how I’d do if I’d been asked to act out the piece. Memory problems aside, I think I’d be sloshed around like a lifeless wet blanket. But there’ll be points where I’d have acted ahead just as I’d have under-acted on so many other points in the play.
I wonder if the director could impose his thoughts on me? Seng Onn who performed in an earlier show, said that it was a all encompassing experience being on stage and off it. I guess I would be imposed upon.
Now, I wished I had time to go for Ivan’s performance too!
What has photography done? What has photographers done? Especially in sterile Singapore? So why bother? Why, indeed.
I’d wondered if it could be any clearer:
“Why don’t you pay me to represent you in Japan? I’ll get you the space and curate for you. You only have to do the rest.”