An exploration of age through the body – the mind - the emotions
A Multimedia Physical Theatre Production
AGE – noun
* the length of time that a person has lived or a thing has existed
* archaic a lifetime taken as a measure of time; a generation
* ( ages/an age) informal a very long time: it would take an age to tell her everything.
How many ways can “AGE” be perceived? As gain or loss. As an accumulation of wisdom or as a collapse into senility. As beautiful or as grotesque. With respect or with pity. As a source of knowledge or as a waste of time.
In Western society “AGE” is considered a defect, youth reigns supreme. For a dancer aging signifies the loss of all that she/he has worked to perfect and the point when the dancer is considered too old comes earlier than for any other career or group. An actor wears his “AGE” as a badge of honour while a dancer carries his as an ever-heavier burden. But what happens if we decide to challenge this perspective. Two performers, a woman 47 years of “AGE” and a man 61 years of “AGE”, coming from very different cultural and societal backgrounds share through physical theatre the humour, challenges and power of aging with a public of all ages and in doing so answers the questions what is “AGE” and when is “AGE” too old.
In overlapping and successive scenes:
* the body questions itself about age in ways both grotesque and funny
* presents it’s function as a vessel of memories
* the vulnerability and fragility of memory becomes obvious
* we evaluate the intrinsic value of the physical body on the market of attractions and desirability
* and recognize that there is a joy in simply having survived time
What do images do to our perception of “AGE”? Using video as a tool to explore and expose, to define and celebrate, images are projected on three transparent inflatable walls (2 by 3 meters created by Jeff Koons collaborator Michael Schultes) revealing the multiply layers of the work on stage, and the many faces of our idea of “AGE”. “AGE” - layers, upon layers upon layers of experience, emotions, victories and defeats..
Using a palette of black, white and greys on an empty stage intense colour is an aggressive quotation mark around the theme of each of the scenes.
Brutal, gentle, loving and cruel. “AGE”