Thanks, Alison,
Wish I had been, could be there to take in the performance. Sounds
terrific!
Judy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alison Croggon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2005 8:09 AM
Subject: TN: Material Mouth
> Material Mouth, performed and devised by Carolyn Connors. Directed by
> Margaret Cameron, lighting by Gwendolyna Holmberg-Gilchrist. La Mama
> Theatre
> until October 9.
>
> Material Mouth, says the press release, is a "theatrical concert for
> solo
> voice", which seems as good a description as any. Created and performed
> by
> the remarkable Carolyn Connors, it's as hard to classify as it is to
> adequately describe - a work of performance art that encompasses sound
> poetry, compositions for voice and wine glass, cabaret and satire.
>
> In Material Mouth, music, poetry (in its least semantic form) and theatre
> collide in the female body. As much as anything, this work is a very
> conscious performance of femininities, a subtly devastating parody of how
> the politeness of the feminine is laid, like a constricting costume, over
> the impolitic female body. The gap between the proper and the improper
> emerges as a disturbance, in expressions of hysterical extremity clothed
> in
> a parade of apology, which assault the audience with a discomfort that is
> very close to embarrassment. The response, certainly on the night I saw
> it,
> is a lot of laughter.
>
> This is not to say that Connors isn't funny; she is often very funny
> indeed.
> But there was an interestingly nervous edge to the laughter of the
> audience
> the night I saw it; Material Mouth was as clear a demonstration of the
> mechanism of laughter as a release for anxiety as any I have seen.
>
> Carolyn Connors has been called one of the "most experimental mouths" in
> Australia. A composer, keyboardist and vocalist, she has collaborated with
> the sound poets Amanda Stewart and Chris Mann, and most recently she was
> the
> "Psychokinetic Pianist" in Gotharama with Moira Finacune, star of the
> "new
> burlesque". Here she is directed by Margaret Cameron, one of the most
> innovative and distinctive theatrical talents in Australia.
>
> Read more at http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com/
>
> All the best
>
> Alison
>
>
>
> Alison Croggon
>
> Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
> Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
> Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
>
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