An interview with Morten Norbye Halvorsen
MNH: I am recording. I am recording all of today – the whole day - and then I record the next day and the next day and the next day. When I start recording the days before start playing back at the same time. All the differences, gaps and changes in the script will maybe make it into more of a melody.
By the end all of the awkward pauses, strange overlaps, like when five days play on top of each other that will be the theme tune, but the theme tune will be finished when the show is finished. I also thought it would be a bit like a radio theatre that unfolds everyday somewhere in the administrative brain of the computer. With the aid of some simple gestures. I also wanted the sound of this theatre to feature the voice of Richard Foreman. He would have this voice, often pre recorded in his plays, a sort of “voice of god”. I also only know his work through recorded material and here we could meet in a recording.
LW: Who is Richard Foreman?
MHN: He is an amazing American playwright, poet, artist. He has been active since the ‘60s. He has done tones and tones of plays with Ontological Hysteric Theatre which he is the founder of and artistic director. They have been based in New York for ages. Now he is moving into film with his Bridge project. First the plays were really static and long, interrupted by really loud sounds and pre-recorded voices that were almost like instructions to the actors. He would have speakers in the audience and they would hear his pre-recorded voice. Then they would see the actors respond. A live response to listening. But before I get all the facts on him wrong check his wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Foreman
So, Jessica Warboys wrote the portrait of Mardi as a poem and we adapted that as a script for Richard Foreman to read. It is about him being inside a pocket with a blue fountain pen writing and that is where all the recording is happening. Almost describing the set of repetition island. The suit jacket is a poem that Jessica wrote, which is tailored for Richard Foreman. So I play the recording of him reading this in the morning on Repetition Island. It is sort of like an opening credit. Here is the text:
The night before
by the first
Yesterday
by the second
The day before
by the third
Tomorrow
Stop, not yet
A beat
A beat on a boat
Drawn on a notion
With a heart deep inside a suit pocket
A heart that beats to the rhythm of a drum
A drum on an island
A drum marks time
Time has begun
In the mouth of a blue fountain pen
“Ouroboros” cried the chorus
This play is sound
Hullabaloo
This, they, the man and the day
This, they, them and the sun
Made it spin, spun and the sun
“Ouroboros” cried the chorus
Bora Bora
Bollabolla
Island too
I
I is an Island
“Taboo” cried the chorus
Tonga, Tapu, Sacred, Holy
Tonga Tapu - Sacred South
Motu Tapu
Sacred Mouth
Te Motutapu a Taikehu
In the mouth of a blue fountain pen
In a suit pocket
This pocket has walls and these walls have doors
Singing of what was before
Music unending
If, this pocket were a city ?
Uptown, Downtown
Inner pocket
Suit jacket
Sketched out
With a blue fountain pen
On a crumpled paper
In a suit pocket
Worn by a man
Richard Foreman
LW: So at the end of the week will there be constant noise from all the layers?
MNH: Well we can pull out little sections and start interrupting people so that they can hear what they said yesterday. I hope that by day five when we play everything all at once it will be like a melody.
LW: Is there a difference in the sound today compared to the day before.
MNH: For me it has been narrowing down. It is tighter. In regards to the overall sound, I think that yesterday was busier and also more clunky – like a dress rehearsal. The outset it always synchronized but everyday starts to shift as it goes along. Today I played yesterday too loud. It worked really nicely with what was happing. Michael Portnoy started shouting and then the people upstairs called security. I think that the whole idea with this is that it build up and build up over the week and when I pack my suitcase it will contain some strange tapes.
LW: What will you do with the material at the end of the week?
MNH: It goes into my archive. Actually I will do something with it. A few things. Different versions I have promised I will give the whole six days – in ten hours - as a gift to Richard Forman. It is as if he has contributed with his voice to a radio theatre with an uncertain ending. It just unfolds.
