Getting stuck in Ghent at 1am after missing the last train from Brugge, talking in the kitchen till 330am and waking at ten past ten realising rehearsal was at 11, forgetting to recharge my camera battery yesterday so having nothing to show … I shall gladly suggest reading Andrew, reading Andrew, watching Andrew.
“Well, the train station isn’t so cold, but what should we do?” says Dasniya, as we wonder no more about the possibility of a train or bus to Brussels. So we find a taxi driver who’ll take us the distance for €60, “No, this is my second job, I teach educationally difficult boys, I have two loves, my mother in Ghent, my wife in Brussels, I live in both cities, no I only sleep four or five hours a night”, turns up the techno, lights a cigarette, one hand on his iPhone making calls, the other on the wheel, “51km to Brussels”, Dasniya says, “Ah, so that will be about 20 minutes”, I say. Home in time for a cup of tea and long chat into the night.
We were in Brugge, fleeing after an early finish to rehearsals, to see ADT perform, Be Your Self, and mainly me to see Tara, Kialea and Kimball. Much excitement after the show, it’s been two and an half years since I last saw them. Perhaps a visit from one of them to Brussels?
Today I am as incoherent and silly as the narrative path above. We made it 5 minutes late and greeted by knowing smiles, we all looked like a bunch of Saturday night drunks, bags under our eyes. Lucky no ropes or suspensions, just working our the spacing for the beginning of Act II. Now it’s the same but completely different.
We are reaching the logic closure of the piece, where decisions rest upon the structure around and the set of options within diminishes. Without completely overturning what is already here, the context concerns finding workable answers. This took not much time at all, and we were left to act the goat and discuss tomorrow’s workshop.
Yesterday, missing photos and all, was a short spacing and tech-ing that unexpectedly fell into a run of the first parts of Act II. I suppose that’s what happens when you ask if you can go through the beginning. It’s getting much easier, especially as I’m in a side suspension so I can swap from arm to arm whenever one becomes too tenderised.
The anticipation is becoming tangible, a little under two weeks till premiere, and though much to do each day with little time, it is progressing, things are getting done, sorted out, set. For all of us there is the sense we are doing something special, not knowing much about opera it’s difficult to convey … but I think we each have personal reasons that transcend the obvious list of la Monnaie, Wagner, Parsifal, Hartmut, Romeo … that bring something particular, emotional, into the piece.
Tomorrow Dasniya, Gala, and I are having a Shibari workshop for various cast, crew and others from la Monnaie. Yes, it’s Monday, the day off, and tiredness is competing with nervous energy, desire for more suspensions with bruised flesh, but shall be really nice to be teaching this again. We have had not so much time to play in the last couple of weeks, though we’ve had many long discussions about what we’re doing, and we have way too many ideas for a four hour workshop.
(Shall spend the evening listening to Burzum, Solti’s Parsifal and doing as little as possible.)
