The
International Festival has nothing
to fear from this rival version
of The Lindbergh Flight,
the short radiophonic opera that
forms part of its Brecht/Weill
double-bill. This production
by CalArts Festival theatre from
Valencia, California bears no resemblance
whatever to the Lyon opera production.
The
Ocean Flight may be a long way
removed from its source material – and at 15 minutes it’s probably
the shortest show on the Fringe – but, on its
own terms, this is an imaginative, absorbing and technically
adventurous piece.
Adaptor
and director Chi-wang Yang has
ignored the political overtones in Brecht and Weill’s treatment
of the Charles Lindbergh story. Instead, he has
drawn parallels between Lindbergh’s physical
relationship with the aircraft that carried him across
the Atlantic in 12927 and the technical enhancements
that are revolutionizing our lives and our bodies today.
The
theme is explained in rather pretentious
terms in the director’s note printed in the programme, but
it’s illustrated far more vividly through his
ingenious fusion of live performance and multimedia
presentation.
Moving
between two distinct stage areas,
a solitary performer (Mira Kingsley)
re-enacts Lindbergh’s voyage,
using highly simplified movement. Filmed
live, her image is projected onto
a series of screens – one
large and fixed, two handheld and
mobile – where
it ijteracts with pre-recodrded
footage and animation by Miwa Matreyek.
A
huge pair of lips mouth soundless
words above a morphing cityscape. An eye stares out from the hub of
a rotating propeller, its blades represented by skyscrapers. Lindbergh
hallucinates snakes or tendrils made from cables and
cogs; his arms become mechanical wings which disintegrate,
Icarus-style; his heart throbs hot and red like an
engine. Most admirable is the seamless integration
of these elements, which coalesce with the Yuen Cheuk
Wa’s decidedly un-Weill-like soundtrack to form
an engaging meditation, exploring the idea that humanity
may be at the threshold of transformation into a cyborg
race.
The
original creators might scoff,
but the birth of new technology,
and its implications for people,
was precisely what inspired their
piece.
Andrew Burnet
15 August 2006
