Peter Brook has been a director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and currently heads the International Centre of Theatre Research in Paris. He has directed over fifty major productions in London, Paris, New York and other places, as well as Opera and film.
Quotations from Between two Silences
Yes, this is this whole question of innocence and experience. A child up to a certain age is complete within the possibilities available at that age, but he hasn’t fulfilled all his possibilities. He then comes into an awkward period when new possibilities begin to emerge and they stop halfway. And then all the trouble begins. Physically, you can grow up to a certain age…You just grow, grow, grow, naturally, and then you’re grown up. Your body’s grown up, but that doesn’t mean that your inner possibilities are fully realized. And at that moment the innocence is lost and you go into complication, and every problem exists. What you have to do is to go through them and develop to a new innocence…One can’t say that being a child is really an aim for an adult, but at the same time being like the adult that we all are isn’t enough. That’s why so many writers have used the image of going through a forest; there’s the childhood and then there’s this going through a forest which often is very dark and tangled, and if it’s possible to get out of it, then a new form of what you can call innocence is found. One innocence is given; the other is discovered.
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I think you can explore yourself if you’re not interested in exploring yourself, but in exploring other people and exploring your relations with other people. The first thing that can really destroy the true possibility of an actor is that he’s too interested in exploring himself. A sensitive actor can find himself, for instance in a very tough and brutal group; he may have a real ideal, his innocence may still be there, and he looks round he sees that the director is vulgar, the other actor are exhibitionists, and all that he has longed for in the theatre is being betrayed before his eyes.
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…it seemed to me that what happens inside the picture frame had to be made as fascinating as possible. So, from the very start my biggest interest on the design. It seemed to me that the image that you say through the picture frame was the image of another world…And I found this stimulating, exciting, dynamic; I rapidly learned that the image that you are looking at couldn’t be too complete. If it was oversaturated, the imagination wouldn’t flow anymore. The image that you looked at had to suggest a real world without being completely a real world.
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It was one of the most interesting and important subjective experiences, to see how, in the theatre, anything to do with design is inseparable from the fact that theatre is not a static image. It is not even an image in movement; it is a play in movement. It is interrelationship within something which unfolds like a great spool of film. From the beginning of the play, and at each moment, image, sound, movement, word is having its effect o n an audience, bringing the audience closer to the characters, more into certain human situations, bringing their interest up, then lowering it for a moment.
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I think that the designer must bring a very positive contribution of his own, but he must start by recognizing and respecting that the costume, for example, is the actor’s tool, and that the actor start’s with something very, very tiny in himself. At first he’s very protective about it because it’s also a formless hunch which he’s letting grow…then gradually the actor begins to realize that he has to communicate and share what he’s doing, and what he has secretly begun to find is able to go outwards. For it to go outward, there comes a point where the costume becomes one of the biggest tools for projecting outwards to the audience.
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But we can’t make relationships; we can let relationships, because that’s what any story, any play of any description, anything human, is about: relationships. In scratching away to find the bedrock of that, you’re doing something like a painter or sculptor who is eliminating what’s not necessary until the shape is there. That shape then becomes aesthetically pleasing, and I think that is what touches you. You see, it’s inhabiting the space, but not for “artistic” reason.
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I think that really goes back to why Westerns are so interesting, and have always been, from the beginning of cinema. Just that shot of a horse galloping. That’s why “movies” is a very good word. Movies really mean that it’s interesting because it moves. In the theatre, you have to be moved, and that’s much more difficult.
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…theatre as “the reflector of reality,” and that means that whatever happens in the theatre isn’t real; in the best sense of the world, it’s an imitation. That’s why we can look at it. It isn’t the real thing, but an expression of the real thing through a mirror. Anything that happens in the theatre is like a metaphor; it’s not the thing itself, but it helps you to understand the things because the real thing is not this but it’s like
Posted by mon | reply »tactile sound
code inconnu
opening scene of Michael Haneke’s film Code Inconnu, one of my favourite films of all…
Posted by e | more »east-west 东西 stuff
四合院 siheyuan showdown
this is the one that is in the southwest part of the city. Qu says he thinks it has around 20 rooms.
this is the tea house, now in negotiation…
Chinese 聋人 public service announcements
the one on the top is interesting that it is so international in scope, and in English, which I’m not sure i understand why, but perhaps these videos were made for a an internationl audience or NGO? Couldn’t read the tiny logos at the end, neither did i find any other documentation online.
also a very interesting, much more assertive look at chinese deaf language and culture [here] from a vlogger named 胡晓姝 Alice, who talks about the political incorrectness of “聋哑人” versus “聋人”, as well as the different ways it is connotated in chinese sign language. addressing issues of political correctness is not something often seen in China, and not thus far in my interactions with the deaf community, but it is an extremely strong statement of identity that has direct relation to some of the work that we will experiment with during the August workshop.
Posted by e | more »gifting
yet another 四合院 report
extremely expensive real estate on touristy 国子箭, a museum on the first floor of the back courtyard, all preserved architecture, commercial space now available. not really ‘home’ enough for our project purposes, and ridiculously expensive, but was recommended by Jia Wei, and it’s close by, so good to check out anyway… the roof terrace made me 流口水 though… 30,000 rmb/month for all the front yard spaces (can be rented separately too), and 60,000 rmb/month for the back, not including the museum part (that stays)
very tiny hutong off of Gulou, with an impressive view of the Bell tower from the courtyard. square meterage could be good enough, with the twist that it’s long and rectangular, not square. posh, posh, posh. father’s daughter shows us around, densely throwing around the details of the imported materials used for this space, now being used as her studio. To paraphrase: “But now I spend half the year in Beijing and half the year abroad–the U.S., England, and in July I go to New Zealand–so we decided to rent it out, but I won’t rent it out to just anyone. I’m picky about who’s in my place. There was this French guy that was interested but I said no, he was too ugly. I’m an artist, aesthetics are important. And they have to be clean. So actually designers are better than artists. Not as messy like me, I’m an artist.” 30,000 RMB/month
had walked into this place once when it was a restaurant, meals for around 900 RMB a person. quite big, at least 300 sq metres or more, super high ceiling is nice. but not very homey, courtyard is small, divided into two sections. just off Xihai, great location. 30,000 rmb/month.
the courtyard here is not big enough, maybe around 30-40 square meters, and i asked the landlord if it would be possible to tear one small room down to make the courtyard bigger, but she said it’s bad fengshui. i said my friend needs to 排练 there, and she said she should 排练 indoors! one side of the rooms is opened up to make a very big, long room, probably at least 70 sq meters, and if you’re interested to concentrate on this play between inside-and-out, it could work… there’s no furniture really, since it was used as an office before, but the would-be bedroom part is also nice because it has the traditional wood framing (middle photo). kitchen big, and huge bathroom (the part that i thought could be torn down). there’s also another small toilet. ~18,000 RMB/month
quite nice, but more pricey. also heated floors and chandeliers! courtyard is borderline in size (30-40 sq. meters?), but everything is in really good condition, homey. 30,000 RMB/month.
this the more 80s view of courtyard life in Beijing: not newly renovated, currently lived in, it’s super worn-in. a small, modest entrance opens to a very long corridor before you come into the courtyard, also borderline in size. one large room off the corridor, and then in the courtyard, rooms at the north, east and west. 18,000 RMB/month
here’s the place to give us some serious things to think about… needs some work, but it’s super cheap and other reasons i will go into further when we speak next… around 260 sq. metres, courtyard must be around 50 sq. metres. rooms on the northern, southern and eastern sides. a cellar below…
recurring theme: thugs around the courtyard
this place is just next to the forbidden city, beautifully renovated, the malaysian 华人 just moved out. they told me it was 320 sq m on the phone, with approximately half that as courtyard area, but i arrived to find a very small little yard, much more intimate, surrounded by nice big rooms. would be nice to live in! even has central heating/air conditioning… 21,000 RMB/month.
nice huge space, but er… would require some work. not entirely impossible, but probably not enough time/funds. also over 300 sq m. famous author used to live here, his books were scattered amidst the rubble. the building at the entrance had been converted to a sort of commercial space that now looked like it was temporarily housing a few migrant workers. DIY bed made of electric heaters! the ‘making-do’ is endlessly much more creative than i will ever be! …can’t remember the price, but cheaper, under 20,000 RMB/month.
further to the west, a former tea house. most of the rooms keep their original tiles, both the floor tiles and the roof tiles, which i love and hard to still find intact these days… making a tea house means “let’s maintain the chinese cultural spirit”, so most of the furnishings and decor are in old style, but ‘cute-ified’. kites, ping pong, ceramic trinkets… don’t ask me if they’re ‘real’. the courtyard is not huge but may just be big enough, although there’s a price to pay for chinese cultural spirit… 35,000 RMB/month
the deaf and the blind
a mini workshop on stamp collecting. we had previously debated for a long time about the proper chinese translation for the english word ‘workshop’, as the 工作坊 we had been explaining up till now is moreso a place, not the class-event type of scenario we are imagining. 讨论会 (more like conference), 手工课 (too childish), 实践课 (hmm…), 实习课 (more like a theoretical-to-practical training) …we finally settle upon 技艺班, perhaps something not unlike what they are doing here. in preparation of the fall stamp exhibition, Mr. Ren is giving a mini workshop on stamp collecting. everyone here is deaf, except for one participant, who is blind. there is a sign language translator who tells the blind man what Mr. Ren is lecturing: different types of stamps and ways of collecting. For the blind man, perhaps this workshop is moreso a one-to-one conversation. Not being able to participate in the context of the classroom lecture-style atmosphere, he naturally responds to the translator. For him this workshop is simply conversation. He starts to tell the translator about the stamps in his collection: one for the Hong Kong 回归 return-to-China commemoration, and another for the celebration of Macau’s return. He is only waiting for Taiwan’s return to China so that he can collect that commemorative stamp, too. The translator has stopped translating now, as it should also only be so natural for him to respond when one addresses him.
“It’s not the same situation, Taiwan won’t return to China like Hong Kong or Macau. Hong Kong was part of the British, Macau was Portuguese. Taiwan is from the Kuomintang, they are independent.”
“What are you talking about? We are all Chinese people. Of course we all want to be united.”
They bicker for awhile, completely outside of the signed conversation that ensues all around them in the classroom. The lesson on stamp collecting is, at the same time, oblivious to the discussion of a blind man and his translator. There are several identities being formed here. All our efforts are in the name of some kind of collecting of some sort. Our disabilities, our hobbies, an entire race of peoples. “Of course we all want to be united.” But when some of us are blind, and some are deaf? There are very few translators, and among all of these very few of us even ever know which one we are.
Posted by e | more »跟聋哑人合作：艺术项目简介
作为海外华人，我们是一个特殊的群体。从社会社会到家庭，从出生地到祖籍国所在地，从母语到外语…我们的社会身份-个性特征，在不停地转变。对此我们颇有 感触。人世间的人情冷暖，世态炎凉，远近亲疏，我们有着与主流群体不同的体验。例如在家中我们要使用祖籍国的语言，到上社会我们要使用主流群体的语言。在 出生国，我们是异族；在祖籍国我们是外国人。黄皮肤，黑头发，却有着西方文化的背景…对此类异同我们经历良多。因此社会身份-个性特征对于我们来说是一个 更为敏感的东西。于是，一个反映，表述这类感受的意向便出现在了我们的头脑中。我们的主旨是探讨，研析社会身份-个性特征在日常生活中，在人们的关系中， 在不同群体形成中起着怎样的作用。为了更好地表达我们作品的主题，为了“言不尽之意”，为了“语言息止之处”我们采用了舞蹈，戏剧，表演，装置，展览等跨 界艺术形式并邀请了许多聋哑朋友参与我们的活动。本艺术项目是在瑞士文化基金会的资助下进行的一项为期两年的社区艺术项目。属非赢利性的纯艺术活动，活动 的目的是促进瑞士与中国的文化交流。公众参与是这项目的主要活动方式。
作品分为三部分，在北京的一个四合院里演出/展出。之所以选择四合院，我们有三方面的考虑，其一是四合院象征着传统中国文化，其二是我们可以把一个封闭的 四合院看作是一个微缩了的社会空间，从中我们可以看出人与人之间发生的种种关系。其三是我们的项目取材与生活，为了贴近生活，还原生活，我们没有把我们的 项目放在一个美术馆或剧院内演出/展出，而是将其完全置入真实的生活中来，这样更有利于我们把艺术作品重新拉回到生活中来。
项目分为三部分：三个创作者将分别在各自的空间内工作。——张秀芳在院子里，何颖雅在厨房，张秀娥在卧室。活动期间我们又分别以个人身份和集体身份互相交流。
在厨房、用餐区：开展了一个无声技艺交流活动。在一个人的社会身份-个性特征的构成中语言是一个重要部分。为了观察在各种语言之外人们是否还有更多的交流方式，我们将请一些聋哑人参与我们的创作。我们在一起共做一事，共同交流，共度时光，我们将一起做饭，用餐和制作影片。
活动将于八月初开始，共四周，每周两次，具体时间将根据大家的情况确定。愿意参加我们活动的朋友，或有任何问题的朋友，请和我们联系：lianxi [圈a] homeshop [点] org [点] cn
下载pdf格式项目简介 （1.1 mb)
Posted by e | more »community building
(video courtesy of members of the Beijing Chaoyang Church)
Posted by e | reply »the supreme moment of communication
You see, this is exactly how it starts. With a silence. There are two silences. Perhaps there are many, but there are two ends of the pole of silence. There is a dead silence, the silence of the dead, which doesn’t help any of us, and then there is the other silence, which is the supreme moment of communication – the moment when people normally divided from one another by every sort of natural human barrier suddenly find themselves truly together, and that supreme moment expresses itself in something which is undeniably shared, as one can feel at this very moment. In between the two silences, between the rock bottom of the dead silence, the silence of people in a theatre, for instance, who just have given up so completely that they fall asleep, and the silence when everyone is so keyed to the same point that there is this extraordinary life, in between the two, are the varying areas where all the questions arise. There are no questions at the bottom or the top; in between is where every question arises.
– Peter Brook “Between Two Silences”
actors, players, participants, friends, performers
Since the advent of German Romanticism, the concept of theater as been associated with the idea of the living community. Theater appeared as a form of aesthetic constitution—meaning the sensory constitution—of the community: the community as a way of occupying time and space, as a set of living gestures and attitudes that stands before any kind of political form and institution; community as a performing body instead of an apparatus of forms and rules. In this way theater was associated with the Romantic notion of the aesthetic revolution: the idea of a revolution that would change not only laws and institutions but transform the sensory forms of human experience. The reform of theater thus meant the restoration of its authenticity as an assembly or a ceremony of the community.
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The paradox of the spectator is part of an intellectual disposition that is, even in the name of the theater, in keeping with the Platonic dismissal of the theater. This framework is built around a number of core ideas that must be called into question. Indeed, we must question the very footing on which those ideas are based. I am speaking of a whole set of relations, resting on some key equivalences and some key oppositions: the equivalence of theater and community, of seeing and passivity, of externality and separation, of mediation and simulacrum; the opposition of collective and individual, image and living reality, activity and passivity, self-possession and alienation.
— Jacques Rancière, “The Emancipated Spectator”
Posted by e | reply »courtyard touring beijing
gloria, a petite little real estate agent, takes me on an electric bike tour of beijing courtyards…
was a german foundation’s office, looks like it, the courtyard half covered and half open-air, would be big enough if you don’t mind the covered part, environmentally friendly heating system uses little pellets that look like rabbit poo, no furniture, more images here
much cosier than the one above, dark wood, furnished nicely, 2 bathrooms, large kitchen, though the courtyard may border on small… lively area hadn’t visited before, in the west…
the final stop of the evening just happens to be… Mr. Liu’s house. he was very happy to see me, though he said he was sad that the place still wasn’t rented out yet. we are all friends now, don’t worry. just say what your needs are and we can change things around. the bush? we can take that away, no problem!
Limitations Permitted
Sign language, having been a language that was repressed, has strong associations in the deaf community with freedom and rebellion. In 1880, at an international conference in Milan it was ruled that oral (spoken) education was better for deaf people than manual (signed) education, and they passed a resolution to ban sign language. So for many people it is the language of liberation, of refusal to accept the status quo, of a connection with your identity that rejects the one that has been imposed upon you, particularly the ‘medical’ view of deafness as something to be ‘cured’, for the deaf person to become ‘normal’. Sign language has still no legal status, but can be ‘overheard’ by CCTV. (Damien Robinson)
The “Limitations Permitted” project pictured above combines issues of language and identity with the ‘crossings in space’ that Simone has been dealing with recently. It looks like an incredibly interesting work. Now getting more into my thinking about how deaf people are relating to one another, i see it in Robyn that she is very much defiant about her identity in “Deaf World” versus “Hearing World”, as her translator joked. She was not hesitant at all to create an exclusive conversation amidst those of us who could not follow sign language, and it is very much true that that evening was for her, in some small way, a liberation. The desire to communicate is so strong, so strong. Not sure it is really possible, with the idea of ‘removing language’, to withhold such inherent desire. I would like to speak about so many failures, so many misunderstandings. But we have to make the move first, perhaps.
