I am back from Germany after having done the Cologne shows. I never realised just how important the timing with the subtitles is. We changed it by slowing down the piece and this made the whole performance very different. Rather than speech and subtitles arriving simultaneously, we separated them giving both much more space and focus. It seems like a detail but it is the sort of detail that really changes the nature of the piece.
It went very well and gave renewed faith in the craziness of this endeavour. I’m tempted to say that it felt easier doing the show in Germany than in the UK and I could now imagine doing it pretty much anywhere since the rise of China is a global reality not just a local story.
I also found that I have altered the way I perform and now make my actions cleaner and slower, making the work look less chatty. This turns everything (words, actions, sound, subtitles) far more into symbols.
There were plenty of positive things people said, which was most encouraging, and one or two negative things too. I’m used to dividing opinion so that does not worry me and in fact one of the negative comments I found curious and even partially corect. Namely, that the perofrmance was superficial. I think in a way it is because I am very interested in surfaces, in the surface level of experience. By really going into the aesthetics and sounds of Chinese pop culture and choosing that as my aesthetic this is always going to be an issue. By also having the translation filtered through Google translate, what depth was there in the original text is partially lost or at least obscured. This is somewhat the experience that I as a visitor to China had: that there is a very present and bouyant surface culture but that there is an attempt to remove you from the depth and conflict that also exist within the culture and daily life. The performance is therefore afflicted by the conditions it critiques.
I try not to underline meaning and instead let people have the experience of snatching it themselves, yet I know this is a experience that each spectator will approach individually and some will be more inclined to find depth than others. It remains my way nonetheless to hold this tension and if there is further work upon the performance it will be to maintain these opposing tendencies and work within them.
