Surreal Freud and other matters




I finally went to my first rehearsal for the play I am doing a little acting in. It is acting now, rather than dancing, as I first understood it, and that's because I actually have to speak, call out rather, my stage brother's name: Sigmund, Sigmund. My two "sisters" have a little more to say: one screams - very effective, I could not possibly match that, the other breaks into German and pleads "Hilf, hilf".

I have a block about speaking - I am a dancer and prefer to be silent, though when I was in Indonesia at Sardono's studio in Solo he was very keen on using the voice, in a very powerful way. Oh, I really miss Indonesia now, it's been years and it keeps on coming into my dreams, I can even smell it.

Before I go on I should try and make this tale a little more coherent. I am in Hysteria a play by Terry Johnson - I talked about it in an earlier post. Yesterday I met the cast - impressive. Antony Sher is Sigmund Freud. I have been a fan of Sher's for years, so meeting him was quite emotional for me, even though I managed not to do something as silly as burst into tears, like a star-struck teenager.

I am appearing as one of Freud's sisters, on my way to a gas chamber (Freud's sisters died in a camp). It is all part of a surreal dream like sequence. The only thing I still can't figure is how Freud could see his sisters going towards a gas chamber as when he died in 1939 Die Endlösung had not yet begun. But a dream is a dream. Besides the conjurer is Salvador Dali, in this particular instance.

So it truly is a surreal Freud.

It was exciting to see such amazing actors rehearse. They were refining the interpretation and yesterday the work was all on movement - how to make use of the space, how to work expressively with the body while speaking the lines.


Though I did not do very much I felt quite exhausted at the end of the afternoon. Then I began to get very worried about finding accommodation in Bath, where I will have to be for three weeks from Monday 23rd July. I have left it a little late, no doubt. Finally this morning I found what I wanted, after loads of telephone calls. It felt a little unreal to be introducing myself as an actress to my prospective landlords. Should I really say that, I wondered. But it was the best thing, really, I wanted them to get an idea of why I was after a room for three weeks only. So, until the first week of September (we tour after the three weeks at the Theatre Royal) I will be an actress. I will enjoy this brief change of occupation
(Photo by Korrigan  modelled by Alex B)

Comments

  1. In 2008 I was in a rock opera here in Denver: "Magdalene, Woman of Light." It was an intense experience. I found that it took just as much energy (from body, soul and spirit) as any musical performance I've ever done, and that acting often brings us face to face with our own inner demons... There's a reason the ancient Hellenes used drama to heal souls.

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