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§ The Futurist poet Velimir Khlebnikov, [1885-1922] saw words and sounds as the expressive elements and the fundamental building units of literary work. The Russian painter and designer Vlamidir Tatlin, [1885-1953] treated the surfaces of disparate materials in different ways in order to reveal the varied nature of sound. The variety of these textures and materials simply and cleverly echoed the oral material of a poem. 1 THE BED BOX THEATRE is also made
up of singular parts, taken out of their original context to be
reassembled into an altogether different whole — a puppet theatre.
It is constructed from the gutted structure of the box spring of
a single bed. It is made up of bits of material with a past history:
a picture frame; a piano keyboard; spindles; a trivet; a doorknob;
alphabet blocks; a card table; a soap dish; wallpaper. The structure of THE BED BOX THEATRE refers to the body: both its physical properties, [head/stage, body/cabinet, gut/spirals]; and its virtual, dreaming state, [fluidity of the WWW and its hyperlinks enables the user to outreach to other ‘dreaming’ bodies.] Dreams: the lucid dream; the recurring dream; the daydream and the nightmare; all follow a more organic, web-like structure, far removed from linear str(i)(u)ctures. The sporadic structure of dreams aptly approaches the meaning of the word dislocation — floating, uprooted, matter buoyant in water and weightless in space. And so the WWW, with its layers of information and the potential for layers of meaning, can occupy the same dislocated space as the dream. The bed also relates to the body; inert in rest, but moving in the space of light reverie, and the dreams and nightmares of slumber. It is a site where sleep and the ‘virtual’ reality of dream may neighbour the daydream and reflection of waking life. The sensual play of pleasure and intimacy often takes place in the warmth of bed. The word BEDRIDDEN conjures up attributes like sloth, sickness and dying. But what of the imagination, which is very much alive, and sheltered by this private place? Alone, in bed, one need not wear a social, public mask, but can be the secret self, the best or worst self. Free, like the artist in the studio, alone with thoughts and imaginings, ready to explore and experiment with the medium. The fluid medium of dream. An image bank, accumulated from a lifetime’s experience, awaits the dreamer in the delicate folds of the brain. Half of a life spent in various beds. Half of that half of life, spent in slumber. THE BED BOX THEATRE will present a world half-asleep, a world half-awake, A WORLD OF IN-BETWEEN. |
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THE BODY AS ARCHITECTURE While working on THE BED BOX THEATRE, I researched Russian Constructivism, and was inspired in particular, by Lyubov Sergeevna Popova, who did the set design — a sort of acting apparatus — for the Russian theatrical producer and director Vseyyolod Meyerhold's (1874-1940) “The Magnanimous Cuckold.” “Composed of several levels, the framework resembled traditional scenery stripped of its illusionistic canvas to reveal its basic structure (...) Popova’s full height infrastructure for the entire play presented a new concept of the stage as an all-embracing apparatus for acting rather than an illusionistic and passive background.” 2 The performances envisioned for THE BED BOX THEATRE, include both the puppet and the live performer. A puppet performance may take place on the puppet stage, on either side of the structure or in the many windows looking out at the audience. The live performer may wish to use the stage and/or the small windows as framing devices or may depart from the theatre into the audience. The FOURTH WALL — of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s naturalistic theatre — is no longer flat and before the audience like an window onto the world. This wall is now invisible and weightless; it is now surrounding the audience so that they are not removed from the action but implicit within it. The wall has become so small and box-like that the audience must creep up to watch. The body of the audience becomes an important architectural element; fluid and changing to the demands of the performance. The audience becomes an integral part of the performance, helping to shape the mood, to fuel the piece with their energy and laughter. Peter Schumann, founder of the Bread & Puppet Theatre, views theatre, and all forms of art, as absolutely essential. In the early 1990’s, he cited the following aspects which denotes the importance of the puppet theatre.
Jacinto Benaventene was one of the first 20e century Spanish dramatists to incorporate puppet figures in his plays. In “Los intereses creados” (The Bonds of Interest, 1907) the audience is asked in the prologue:
The author asks only that the audience becomes a child. A child who is open to wonder. |
