RESEARCH ARCHIVE

Myth and the Flesh by Marián Araújo, January 2007

With this project I intend to challenge the role and autonomy of the actor, combining the freedom and instinctive creativity found in other art forms (such as visual performance art) with the possibilities of the pure language of theatre (body, voice and imagination). I have always been interested in our perceptions and understanding of the meanings contained within our own realities and the nature of identity; including culture, religion and sexuality. In order to explore all of these elements I will focus on the figure of Mary Magdalene. I am very interested in the disparate art and literature inspired by her. From the traditional associations such as: the woman; the sinner; the dryer of tears — to the poetry of Rilke, John Donne, and Kahil Gibran. I will take as an impulse for my action score, selections from some of these texts, as well as my response to some of the paintings inspired by this myth, such as works by Georges De La Tour and Caravaggio. Another important source I will explore is The Apocrypha texts: The Gospel of Thomas and The Gospel of Mary Magdalene; a collection of secret sayings with many hidden meanings not intended to be interpreted literally.

Composing the seed of a performance: Solo work

With all this material I will commence a three-month process of piecing together a performance montage. I will work building a collage, adding and removing different elements to finally create a piece that will stand on its on. I will also integrate traditional songs from the European cradle and a line of actions inspired by memories and dreams lying deep inside the body. This meticulous process is long, for it needs to penetrate fully into the actor’s body and imagination. The text at this first stage would be used as another element to construct the action, never to be illustrated but more as a stimulus to open up the expression of the actor through texture, repetition, tempo/rhythm and impulse.  

As part of my research on traditional songs I will invite different Irish and international musicians resident in Ireland to teach me traditional songs from their respective countries, so that I can wave them later into my work. I believe that there are certain types of songs with a very special vibratory quality that can act as a catalyst to free dormant impulses, expanding the expression of an artist. I have been exploring them for over a year, starting in November 2005 when I worked in Moscow with The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards.

 

AVERSION – Work in Progress. By Aiden Condron May 2005

On foot of the artistic and critical success of Fire Face - The Cuchullian Plays by W.B. Yeats in March 2004, nervousystem commenced preliminary plans for it’s next project, which was to become known as AVERSION. The results, of what we now consider to be the first phase of this ongoing project, were presented at the Dublin Fringe Festival in October 2004.

This new project was immensely experimental and ambitious in it’s ideology and design and in comparison with the traditional aesthetic of Fire Face represented for nervousystem a more forthright investigation into an alternative, impulse-based theatre language. AVERSION was largely influenced by the beginnings of a new phase of practical research being conducted by the ensemble in the area of Physical Actions which had been touched on during Fire Face rehearsals. Because of the exploratory nature of this endeavor, a laboratory environment was created which comprised an eleven-week period of fulltime practical research/rehearsal. This time frame was very short for this kind of work (although long by normal standards in Ireland) but was all that was feasible within our budgetary constraints.

The primary source and focal point for this project was the antagonistic relationship between the characters of Phaedra and Onoene in Phaedra by Jean Racine.  Additional dramaturgical sources included the paintings of Vincent Van Gough, David Lynch’s Mullholland Drive and Angela Carter’s Flesh and the Mirror.AVERSION comprised a cyclical and overlapping physical and vocal language rather than a liniar narrative structure. As a response to this source material nervousystem endeavored to create a montage/mise en scene in which the drama would emerge out of the interplay of three precisely structured original independent ‘scores’ performed in real time.

1) PHYSICAL SCORE: Under a directorial eye, actors Regan O’ Brien and Marian Araujo, in response to the primary sources, undertook a meticulous process of gleaning from them a series of psychophysical impulses and from there evolved an original physical and vocal action template or sub score.

2) TEXTUAL/VERBAL SCORE: Once this was accomplished the original text was discarded and this new score became the framework on which writer and dramaturg Jeffery Gormly composed a new original textual/verbal score on the floor in collaboration with the actors and director.

3) MUSICAL SCORE: The actors’ physical template also provided the primary stimulus for the creation of a full independent musical score developed by composer Denis Cloghessey and was performed live.

Thematically AVERSION was complex and challenging. As a response to the original source material we began to examine within a contemporary context a division and struggle with the self, leading to loss of identity, brought about by an obsessive and destructive love.  In the face of this conflict the only option appears to be death. nervousystem endeavored to explore in a dramatically viable way the possibility of resolving this division and setting the way for a more promising future that could perhaps eventually bring into being the will to life.

“Phaedra, in her original Greek incarnation, was a tragic aside to the story of Hippolytus, the object of her doomed passion. In the 17th Century, the French playwright Racine gave her centre-stage: her faithful maid Oenone struggled through plots and schemes to find a reason for Phaedra to live in the face of an overpowering fixation on Hyppolytus which could find no revolution. The consequences were fatal for all concerned.

Now nervousystem look for a way for “Fader” (Phaedra) to overcome her objectification of “Him” (Hippolytus), and “Onanon” becomes the mirror she must endure and abjure, exorcise, silence and ultimately accept…so that she can live.”  (Excerpt from program note)

 

OUTCOME

The process of creating AVERSION proved to be a revelation for all involved. It presented enormous and often unexpected challenges, far greater than we had anticipated. As well as exposing themes that resonated strongly with us, themes we felt were under explored in contemporary theatre, it also opened up new and exciting avenues of practical research and development for the company. It revolutionized our way of working as an ensemble, and has put us firmly on a path to evolving an innovative language for performance and composition, within a new area of research in the domain of what we now call Actor as Writer.

 

ACTOR AS WRITER

Actor as Writer is the research domain in which nervousystem is now focusing it’s energies. It comprises two strands:

A) PERFORMATIVE PRACTICE: methodical training and development of organicity in the craft of acting facilitating and promoting the evolution of the actor, not as interpreter, but as autonomous creator.

B) DRAMATURGICAL DEVELOPMENT: Systematic investigation into the formulation of innovative structures and frameworks for composition appropriate to the activities of the autonomous actor.

All research within this domain will be documented and archived along with all our other research to date.

nervousystem is now revisiting the AVERSION project. We have commenced the next developmental phase of this exciting and innovative work, enabling the creation and refinement of an entirely original performance opus.

Our primary objectives within this Project phase are:

• To further revise and evolve the performative practice that emerged in AVERSION's original inception.

• To focus strongly on AVERSION’s dramaturgy, allowing us to radically re-work the mise en scene with a view to future re-staging.

• To fully record our research process in written form and to create a film document in collaboration with Award Winning Filmmaker and Screenwriter, Tom Cosgrove.

AVERSION has shown us that it has important things to reveal to us about human frailty and the role of the individual within the collective psyche; how easily what appears to be outside of us can become a reflection of ourselves and that realizing this can offer us a key to a better way of living. AVERSION has the potential to offer in a profoundly contemporary way the possibility of a theatre that can truly “hold a mirror up to nature.”

nervousystem feels very passionate about the need to advance this project and give it the time and attention it needs, to develop the potential it revealed during it’s difficult birth and to give it the life it deserves.

 

 

THEATRE HAIKU By Regan O' Brien - May 2005

Background

Nervousystems’ interest in the Theatre Haiku began when we discovered the power of ‘Physical Actions’ as a tool to create a theatre, which begins with the actor. Nervousystem launched an extensive research project into “Physical Actions” during our eleven-week rehearsal process leading up to our performance of Aversion for Fringe Festival 2004.

Theatre Haiku: A project exploring the creation of small pieces of theatre based on the structure and aesthetic of the traditional Japanese form of the Haiku poem.

Exploring the Haiku is a way to teach ourselves how to refine and distill our work to maximize its potency. The Haiku, which is light, free and spontaneous, is built on discipline of, not only, form but also content.

We would like to draw on the devices of the Haiku and transfer the technique into a new form of language for theatre, inspired by our observations of the world. Finding the essence of the human connection with her environment and revealing it through action. Beginning with real nothingness; an open vessel and an open mind. A quietness, which allows us to hear and feel our responses and to create real action in real time.

Haiku are written in the present tense yet they resonate beyond their timeframe: moments in space, which span past, present and future. They present imagery, which reveals a “snapshot” of the universe, setting aside logic and thought fora flash of intuitive insight. That split second when we first experience something but before we begin to think about it. The poet describes her subject in a compact way without making explicit commentary or moral judgment. In haiku simplicity is more valued than “cleverness”, this simplicity is a quality rapidly diminishing in today’s world. Theatre included!

We believe theatre would benefit from the spirit of the Haiku; encapsulate a perfect moment and let the action be led by it allowing the simple connection to evolve without the constraints of textual narrative. There are actions, which are often overlooked in the context of a “play” that mean just as much as the story they combine to relate. We will use these moments for inspiration. Finding a form which enables us to create a perfect resonant moment which connects and communicates with humanity, human frailty and basic being through the re enactment of it’s very nature—the shape of the community that produces us inspires the shape which emerges in our work, the noise we make is a reaction to the noise around us.

For nervousystem this idea allows us to research our function as actors in the community and attempt to create a greater space for the audience’s imaginative and sensory participation which would unite and complete the process.

 

COLLABORATION

The Theatre Haiku will also give nervousystem the opportunity to collaborate with two visual artists for whom we have the utmost respect.

Paul Regan is an Irish artist who is currently working on drawings and prints, which relate to body movement and space. He is interested in nervousystem ‘s endeavor and has agreed to embark on an exchange of ideas with us for TheatreHaiku.

Tom Cosgrove is a filmmaker and screenwriter of great acclaim and has recently won the Zoetrope award for Screenwriting. nervousystem has previously collaborated with Tom on AVERSION. Tom has expressed great interest in continuing our creative relationship and will be filming our research for TheatreHaiku.

nervousystem is interested in nurturing cross-arts collaborations and the development of a new language for our creative process.

We will also, during our research/rehearsal time, perform work-in-progress exchanges within the community as a way of monitoring our progression with the Theatre Haiku. We will approach this with a view to developing a Performance opus comprising a series of Haiku Etudes. This opus will revolve around specific themes particular to our findings from our work-in-progress research performances.

 

Wake butterfly

It’s late. We’ve miles to go

                                   together.     

                                                                Basho