You'll have to cut and paste the link because I STILL can't seem to make links live on this thing. Oh, well.
http://www.theboards.bc.ca/2004-10-27.html
The Stretch Mouth'd Rascals: “This company, formed by Mr. Jeff Gladstone [who was out of town], presents Mr. Thomas Jones with Miss Tallulah Winkleman and Miss. Riel Hahn.” ~ "The Lighthouse"; text: "Do you think this makes me look too tall?"; prop: a bright-red, clearly labelled, gas canteen of ancient vintage; sound: two pot lids, labelled 'bang these together'; an image of thirteen Eastern European children standing in the middle of a field in various odd poses.
There wasn't a single spoken line, save the radio programme which includes the line required (which is, in turn, repeated by one of the characters), and the entire story and characters' interrelationships were quite clear. If you have a small amount of time to tell a story, the best thing is always to make things as simple as possible.
After rushing in bearing buckets of dry ice immersed in water, someone hoisted a floor-mount fresnel over their head and slowly turned around and around whilst the other two made occasional fog-horn noises. As the title suggests, the action took place in and around a lighthouse, with each individual taking one rotation of an 8-hour shift (or 'cycle of bells' as is indicated by a ship's clock). Each signed in or signed out, worked at odd tasks, and slept. Those that were 'off duty' made noises of crashing waves or wind either into as mug, or simply when looking away from the audience.
The gas can took on a fetish-like quality for the two women, as a simple sniff of the contents transported them to a far-away 'Wonderland' where they suddenly convulsed in a variety of odd positions and then collapsed onto the floor of reality. Miss. Winkleman was the most adept at the precision of this sequence, her character also becoming so immersed in the experience that she mysteriously drifted into the audience, and a radio report of an unidentified female drowning victim explained the result.
An intelligent use of minimalism, coupled with clown and absurdist story-techniques
Cool, eh? Stay tuned for more Stretch Mouth'd news. We're ramping up for a very exciting 2005. We're getting a logo and everything!
I saw the chiropractor today and my massage therapist yesterday, and I think I'm recovering. Though the chiro said it'll be a couple of weeks until the pain is gone entirely. Boooo! Dumb stress. His advice was to free my life entirely of stress and difficulty. Cheeky bum! Oh, how we laughed.
I rented 7 movies today. It's 6pm now and I'm going to start. 5 I've not seen before and two for comfort. You know those movies? The ones you could watch hundreds of times and they always satisfy? Room With A View and Grosse Pointe Blank. The 5 unseen are: Winged Migration, Human Traffic, an Ellen Degeneres standup show, the original Alfie, and Matchstick Men. I'm excited. No roommates, just me and the cat. My brother might stop by, as might Siobhan and/or Jonah, so I'll get some hugs and stuff. I feel my shoulders relaxing. It's good. Time alone is good good good.
x
r.
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