When will the September roses bloom? Last night was only a comedy
a double performance
Two festivals ago the inimitable Goat Island began creating this performance work with the question: how do you repair? Drawing on diverse sources for dance/movement sequences, theatrical scenes, and spoken texts, the company began mining The Wind (a silent film from 1928), the history of the teaching of the alphabet in America, the time/space patterns of the Fibonacci sequence within spirals, the poetry of Paul Celan, the philosophy of Simone Weil, and household repair manuals and diagrams. The piece will question our place in a damaged world and our aptitude at repairing it.
Each of these performances will last approximately two hours. (no intermission)
The performance is designed to take place over two nights, with the knowledge that an audience member might only see one performance so each night offers a complete experience in itself. Approximately 15% of each nights performance will constitute material unique to that night, and while the material from the other performance will be repeated, much of that will be in a different sequence each night. This dynamic structure reflects the performances themes of repair/reversibility, and intentionally produces shifts in audience perception and interpretation. The public attending two nights will get the second night at half price.
Goat Island is a Chicago-based collaborative performance company, whose work combines choreography, performance art, theatrical scenes, sound, and visual/spatial composition. The resulting work might be said to weave a complex pattern of poetic associations through movement and text - movement which might echo but not be experienced as dance, text that might echo but not be experienced as narrative. One intention is to explore new approaches to form and content, directly engaging audiences in new configurations - the group perform in intimate spaces, with the audience close to the performers, resulting in a raw immediacy, and the opportunity to appreciate contrasts of energy and stillness.
Goat Island researches and creates each performance collaboratively over a two-year period, presenting work-in-progress performance/discussions during that time.
When will the September roses bloom? Last night was only a comedy is co-commissioned by Performing Arts Chicago (USA), Arnolfi ni (UK), Dance 4 (UK), New Moves International (UK), Kampnagel (Germany), and the College of the Arts and Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University (USA).
Goat Islands work is partly supported by a City Arts Program 1 grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, the Richard H Driehaus Foundation, the Illinois Humanities Council, Performing Arts Chicago and Arts Council England.