April 5, 2008
2 PM
Last night, we got our first glimpse at the craziness that is Les Subsistance. And, let me tell you, what a glimpse it was. I think I suffered from what many would call a sensory overload. There was just so much going on, and it was all so different from what I???m used to. I don???t even know where to begin. I guess I can begin at the beginning, as they say.
As we walked in, I was at first impressed by the beauty and magnitude of the place. Originally a convent, later a military base, the facility is made up of large stucco buildings, all painted in yellows, pinks, and corals. There is a large courtyard area in the center of the buildings, where other attendees of the festival were already milling around. There is a small caf??, which we learned was to provide our lunches for the duration of our stay.
In the center of the courtyard, there was a large cylinder filled with water???probably about 12 feet tall and four feet in diameter. Throughout the night, different artists would play in, around, and above the cylinder, all dressed in different kinds of radical garb. I personally had no idea all the improvisations that could come from a giant tube of heated water. It was really neat. For those of you reading from SMUT, it was definitely up Bill Lengfelder???s alley!
The first production we saw was one that didn???t require me to know much French, but that does not mean that I understood all of what was happening. It began with a really awesome bohemian-looking dude playing a guitar on the ground while singing. Don???t ask anyone in the room what he said, though, because he was speaking what we guessed later was a mixture of Farsi, English, and gibberish. The part that stood out, however, was not what he was singing, but HOW he sang it. He was completely and fully committed to telling us a story without words that we understood, which was a huge learning opportunity for me. I really appreciated how much harder it is to communicate a thought through words that no one understands.
Anyway, after he sang for awhile, the lights came up on what would best be described as a huge, square, white bear-skin rug???enough to cover the majority of the stage. Then, out came (just go with me on this one, guys) a girl dressed in overalls, a guy in a burlap sack-type of outfit with a huge head-covering made of peacock feathers that covered his face completely, and another guy in a suit made of the same material as the bear-skin rug. You couldn???t see his face, either. What followed for the next hour was a conglomeration of dance and movement between the two artists. I???m not sure what I was supposed to come away with, but I did feel a huge sense of intimacy and commitment from everyone involved.
The second production was by far my favorite. It is very difficult for me to put into words what I saw, but it involved puppets, miniature cars, live music, video cameras, large projection screens, and a myriad of other elements. At one point, the camera angle switched to one that was facing the bottom side of a glass-top table. The puppet accidentally broke an egg of the table-top, then proceeded to clean it up with a towel. Incidents like this throughout the performance really made me realize how interesting the smallest happenings can become when looked at from a different point of view. The puppeteers were extremely engaged in inhabiting the entire body of the puppets, so that their seemingly neutral-painted faces would suddenly take on whatever mood the puppet was experiencing. Overall, this production proved to me that there are so many ways to say something WITHOUT using one language or another.
The final production really stumped me (and, I think, most everyone in the room). To sum up, we watched a 20-minute film about a guy buying some cheese from a woman living on a mountain top. Then, this guy gets up, wheels a fog machine onstage, and proceeds to fill the entire room with smoke. I mean, to the point where you can hardly see the person next to you, let alone the movie screen. Then, the lights came up and it was over. Don???t ask me, I???m just a stupid American. Maybe I missed something there.
Anyhow, by the end of the night, I was completely wiped. Now I understand what our French teacher Martha was trying to explain to me yesterday morning at breakfast. Being submerged in a language where you understand nothing going on around you is extremely exhausting mentally. You find yourself working so hard to try to comprehend what???s being said. Needless to say, 5+ hours of it left me frustrated and exasperated, but all the more eager to learn to communicate. I only hope that I can stay patient enough over the coming weeks, so as not to hinder any progress I might make.
Keep me in your thoughts and prayers, guys. It???s a jungle out here!