Linder in Glasgow

i doubt you'll be locked in.

Aha... the lovely Herald link states that "The audience can dip in and out of the Arches throughout the day," .... those were the most important words in that article... but it does sound rather wonderful. I can't wait to see it. I may bring my own chair just in case we're left standing though.;)
 
Aha... the lovely Herald link states that "The audience can dip in and out of the Arches throughout the day," .... those were the most important words in that article... but it does sound rather wonderful. I can't wait to see it. I may bring my own chair just in case we're left standing though.;)

The Herald article is very good. Please etch a postcard to us online how you like it afterwards, if not neccessarily from high on the promenade...:p
 
Just back home.
Done it. Hard~core. 13 hours (well, 12 hours and 42 minutes. But, hell, who's checking the time?)
Too little food and too many chemicals (holy trinity of -eenes ~ caffeine, taurine, codeine) make joe frady a shattered boy. But in a good way :squiffy:
I shall try to give an impression of all 13 hours (!) some time soon. They were recording the whole thing and bits and bobs are popping up on Linder's Darktown Cakewalk blog. Suffice it for now to say it was one of the most extraordinary experiences I think I have ever had.
Off to sleep. Perchance to dream. Although I doubt I'll come up with anything as cracked as the stuff I saw today. :):thumb:
 
Just back home.
Done it. Hard~core. 13 hours (well, 12 hours and 42 minutes. But, hell, who's checking the time?)
Too little food and too many chemicals (holy trinity of -eenes ~ caffeine, taurine, codeine) make joe frady a shattered boy. But in a good way :squiffy:
I shall try to give an impression of all 13 hours (!) some time soon. They were recording the whole thing and bits and bobs are popping up on Linder's Darktown Cakewalk blog. Suffice it for now to say it was one of the most extraordinary experiences I think I have ever had.
Off to sleep. Perchance to dream. Although I doubt I'll come up with anything as cracked as the stuff I saw today. :):thumb:

"Darktown Cakewalk?" I do not think that means what she thinks it means. :eek:
 
Just back home.
Done it. Hard~core. 13 hours (well, 12 hours and 42 minutes. But, hell, who's checking the time?)
Too little food and too many chemicals (holy trinity of -eenes ~ caffeine, taurine, codeine) make joe frady a shattered boy. But in a good way :squiffy:
I shall try to give an impression of all 13 hours (!) some time soon. They were recording the whole thing and bits and bobs are popping up on Linder's Darktown Cakewalk blog. Suffice it for now to say it was one of the most extraordinary experiences I think I have ever had.
Off to sleep. Perchance to dream. Although I doubt I'll come up with anything as cracked as the stuff I saw today. :):thumb:


Thanks, both contain excellent information. :thumb:
Reviews are likely to spring up as well. :)
 
Is nobody going to offer up personal views of Friday's performance? Do you want me to go first?

What i saw of it was pretty spectacular..

costumes were amazing.. i particularly liked the witch costume after she discarded the hat. Her movements were so controlled but contorted and sharp/angular... she had all the good moves:thumb: It must have been exhausting doing all the slow movements that were part of her character. (she was very pretty.:blushing:)

The muse was delightful, an ephemeral joy that was burning too brightly too quickly... she must have been knackered by the end of the night when she was disregarded and cast aside. (on a personal note, my mate has danced with her quite frequently on the Glasgow dance scene).

The screen projections were a bit rude in places - call it art if you want, but i thought them quite 'crude.'

The way the dancers and musicians moved and guided the audience around the Arches, and made full use of the entire space was very well choreographed and made the audience feel part of the performance, indeed, i spent the last hour watching mostly the audience. Lots of folk had bought and worn mouth gags and it was difficult to differentiate performer from voyeur. Performers touched, smiled and waved at the audience and interacted with them whilst still remaining distant and in character... the forever child was really good at this sort of distant interaction oxymoron!

I LOVED the forever child character for the first few hours - eating cake mix, playing, mimicking audience members, - then when i returned after several hours of absence, she was humping the falling star... I must have missed something pretty spectacular for that very interesting turn around to have occurred! Anyway, i thought her character was great and unusual in dance (voluptuous, hairy etc - very Mark Morris like dancer).

The star had gone from nobody to falling star during my absence, so i can't really comment on him! Loved the Martin Fry outfit though!!!

I think the venue had a starring role in itself as it's so bleak, raw and periodically noisy as the trains pass overhead. It 'contained' the entire ethos of the set quite neatly. I doubt they will have a more successful venue for future presentations, but then again, these things are always developed and reinterpreted even when conducted by the same persons over time.

The improvised movements of all the dancers were fascinating and really helped explain their characters derivations and motivations... The music, the use of atypical instruments (like the saw) was edgy at times and quite sublime at other times. The sets were fluid and I loved the way in which all the characters became fixated with themselves in the mirrors!

The King was super vain... i found her costume (cod piece) quite off putting (but i liked the corset). The Queen only had a minor role in the 4 hours that i saw (and she swore like a trooper in the last 10 minutes or so!). So i can't really comment on her.

The ideal types presented were a bit scue wiff and not very well explained if you hadn't read the narrative.. Okay they were supposed to be gendered stereotypes, but i think that bit worked least well in the production. Linder's animal was quite cool but was an extremely minor role in what i saw of the production.

Overall - quite immense, could have watched a lot more of it had time permitted!:p

I'd love to hear others interpretations of the evening? And to hear about the bits i'd missed... Please comment!!!:p:p:p
 

Is nobody going to offer up personal views of Friday's performance? Do you want me to go first?

What i saw of it was pretty spectacular...

:p

Thanks vivabob for art link, and nightingale+therose, for intriguing detailed report (also giggled at double entendre joke :lbf:) In the way that you just attend at a festival to be part of the proceedings, it seems to have catered to audience inclusion very well. :guitar:
 
Thanks vivabob for art link, and nightingale+therose, for intriguing detailed report (also giggled at double entendre joke :lbf:) In the way that you just attend at a festival to be part of the proceedings, it seems to have catered to audience inclusion very well. :guitar:

it's being restaged in London - you should go just for the experience... it was pretty fab! I'm trying to work in a conference at a London Uni so that i can attend again (but not have to pay for an overnight in London - stingy & poor student!!!:D)
 
it's being restaged in London - you should go just for the experience... it was pretty fab! I'm trying to work in a conference at a London Uni so that i can attend again (but not have to pay for an overnight in London - stingy & poor student!!!:D)

That would be tempting, to be considered when the date's known. Exposure to intense playfulness that unique doesn't happen everyday. :)
 
Production notes (invaluable) from Friday nights "intense playfulness".
I've slept most of the weekend but I will give my personal view on proceedings as soon as I can get the time. :)

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Production notes (invaluable) from Friday nights "intense playfulness".
I've slept most of the weekend but I will give my personal view on proceedings as soon as I can get the time. :)
Brilliant Joe. Thanks for posting these. I 'obtained' a poster on my exit from the venue (in full view and with a nod from security i hasten to add), so i'll post that as soon as i get a chance to scan it.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Cheers
 
When we first entered the actual performance space nobody knew what to do or where to go. Eventually, we were drawn to the distant squall of guitar and saw and the fleeting sight of a woman floating back and forth across the far-off archway. The Muse had begun the dance to the music of Time, the real star of this show.
But let's begin with the venue. I'd never been to the Arches before this but, as nighty+rosy has said, I can't imagine it being done in a more succesful space than this. It consists of a series of underground railway arches, directly beneath Glasgow Central Station. There were 3 large full length rooms stretching across the full width of the space, one at the south end of the venue and 2 at the north end, with a further 3 smaller half width box rooms arranged in between these large rooms. The rooms were arranged in parallel to each other so that when you stood at a certain spot in the first Arch you had a direct view running the full length of the space, straight through to the last Arch at the northern end.
This meant that at any given point in the performance you could be watching the action in one space then you might hear a muffled drum or a distant yelp or footstep or see a flash of light at the absolute other end of the venue. You could then wander off to investigate and discover a whole other part of the story unfolding. Oftentimes it might be just a couple of you and the performers in that space. There was no rigidly set path to follow. The action often flowed in many directions. In this sense it was extremely dreamlike in its unfolding, and the architecture of the Arches seemed perfectly designed for this. You were free to wander between the arches and you might come upon a character standing alone in a darkened corner (I bumped into the Witch at one point) or acting out a part of their character.
The subterranean aspect of the venue also obviously underscored the sense of dreamscape to the whole affair. There was no sense of natural light for 13 hours (other than when I escaped to the bar for a medicinal whisky ~ and probably my strongest recommendation would be that even when I popped out for that drink I hurried back as I didn't want to risk missing anything!)
The architecture also reflected and underscored the extremely psychological nature of the performance. Clearly Linder's a big Jung woman, and clearly I wouldn't claim to know a spit about the many Jungian references that were all over this show. But The Arches space definitely had a 'caverns of the mind' vibe to it; compartmenatlised yet parallel, with, at a certain spot, a direct line of sight from one side to the other. And all kinds of hidden dark corners. A pristine space on which to project all her Jung love.
Clearly though, for all the tangents, there were certain key set pieces that the performers had to hit, and all the 6 main actors/dancers performed to a superlative standard. The Star had a look of young Clint Eastwood about him (Linder definitely has a 'thing' for Clint!) and he really captured both the innocence of the rise and the brash annoyance of the falling star. In the first half, after being 'anointed' with gold paint by the King, he came up to each of us and showed off his markings with total wonderment. By the end he was approaching us and shaking our hands, hugging us, but in a totally vaccuous, impersonal way, telling us he loved us, and 'that's AWESOME!' He ended up incapable of conversing with anyone other than his own reflection, which he loved completely. At the very end he was a mute husk of a man, foetal-like on the floor.
The Muse must be bloody knackered! She was dancing beautifully and frantically for maybe all but 2 of the 13 hours. Red Bull does indeed give you wings. I know as much about the art of choreography as I do about the science of artificially inseminating South American long-haired goats but this woman was a WoW! As I said, she was the first character we encountered, dancing in front of the sleeping King. We stood around, or took our seats, and just watched as she glided through the arches in front of us, at times almost floating above the stone floor, in the Richard Nicoll/Linder print dresses that she wore throughout. I think if that hadn't worked at that point, for me, the whole enterprise could have been scuppered, and I might have thought this is a load of old toot. But something in that first hour, perhaps longer, established a tone and a mindset that enabled the whole 13 hour enterprise.
With each individual set-piece the actions would persist up to and beyond that point where you might feel a natural end coming. You learned to resist that natural in-built clock that you have, set by pop, tv, movies, ad breaks, etcetera. That clock that says enough and no more. But I found myself saying yes, more! Call it trance-like, call it dream-state, call it high. But it worked for 13 hours, more or less.
You, and 50 other people, might be watching, for example, Puella Aeterna and the Star shaving each other, very late in the show. This process would persist for a very VERY long time. People laughed at first, they were entertained, then after a VERY long time, they laughed nervously, then less, then awkwardly. After a while you just became fascinated by the process and the details, like the fact that they were using water from a babys bath, pointing up the infantilism of so many beauty processes. No humans, except human children, are naturally free of body hair. Why is smoothness beautiful? I also liked the fact that Puella later on displayed a growth of hair in her armpits that had been sprayed with golden glitter. Now that's a look!
So this process would continue, but at a certain point there might be another part of the story drift into another part of the cavern, such as the shaving being interrupted by the Queen's 'no voice' speech. Some of us would wander up north to see that, but some wouldn't. You were free to choose.
To return to the actors, yes, the Muse was a thing of beauty. At the outset she had a real vibrant, pure prescence, but by the close she was wandering around with a look of absolute blank eyed deadness on her face. Although I think I may very well have had a similar look after 13 hours, but, what the hell, let's call it artistry.
Puella was fantastic ~ genuinely childlike and awestruck at the beginning and then slowly transforming into a grotesque and artificial construct of beauty by the end.
My absolute favourite performer however was the Cakewalk King. She was stunning ~ like an unholy cross between Ernest Thesiger and Renée Falconetti. She could by turns be mesmerising, frightening, charismatic, pathetic, vile, and heartbreaking. And sexy as all get out too! Astonishing. The scene where the King 'crashes' was genuinely disturbing. And later on when 'he' returns on hopeless stick crutches, dragging himself, AT LENGTH, from one end of the space to the other, I was moved to tears.
I suppose I should really mention Linder herself, who was more of an active participant than I had imagined, playing the anima/animus/animal role. There's definitely some of her mate's charisma rubbed off on her cos she has a very real presence in any scene she was in, even when she was just lying still, under a cloth print, for half an hour or so. Breathing. Slowly. Also, I'll never forget the sound of her metal bracelet scraping along the stone floor. I don't know why. But she did it repeatedly as a very deliberate audio motif, which recurred later in the show. But it was just such a haunting sound echoing through the caverns. By that stage I was well away! Dreamscape. I also remember that she spent about 80% of her time wrestling, vigorously, with Puella Aeterna, mainly. She had some cracking moves. She should take it up professionally; Big-Daddy-Linder. Obviously it represented the Jungian take on the Anima/Animus struggle within Puella Aeterna's psyche. But it still looked hot :blushing:
 
I also must mention the schmutter. Until recently I wasn't much of a one for fashion, or the allure of well designed clothes, but it has started to intrigue me of late. And the creations on show here were just extraordinary. The cut of the cloth, let alone the weave of the sleeves, the colours, the way the fabric hung on the performers bodies ~ it took your breath away. The design feat was all the more stunning given the extent and length of the movement that the cloth endured. (Oh and nighty, I think the Star's Golden jacket was more Elvis than Martin Fry ;)) And, my god, the shoes! Je Suis Julie would have had a fit! My jaw dropped at some of the heels Linder and the King were in. Linder, for the first Cakewalk I think , appeared in an outft that I think I might have to go into therapy to get over the sight of! 5" stacked black shiny heels, jet black pvc catsuit beneath a military-style transparent trench coat with white piping, scraped back hair, jet black eyes, and a black 'brank' gag covering her mouth. At one point I walked past her in this gear, in one of the central rooms which was otherwise competely empty of people. I wanted to run up to her and say 'This show is fantastic!' But all I could manage was a squeak...
I loved the music too. They'd warned us it might get loud, and offered us earplugs. But it was fine. The orchestra worked their socks off. There was 'music' playing the entire time, of one sort or another, to accompany the various scenes. That might have been very loud riffing electric guitar or jazz noodling 'post rock' electric guitar with saw accompaniment. Or it could have been a single hand held drum and trumpet. (That wee trumpeter was the real star of the show. I think she was in every scene. Her lips must have been red raw by midnight) It all worked beautifully with the action. And with the Victorian industrial stone work it all sounded unique. At one point there were three drumkits on the go-go as the Witch woke the King. Towards the end, when things started to get a little hazy, I remember being kicked back into life by twin drummers smashing their kits at length for all they were worth, three feet from my side. Bliss it was to be alive!
The musical highlight for me was the first Cakewalk procession where the entire troupe of musicians led the cast and audience in a ragtime stroll up and down the arches, MANY TIMES. Ancient piano on wheels, doube bass, drums and everything. Truly joyous stuff.
At around the halfway point, presumably to give the main cast a break, the narrative found a way to incorporate and feature some popular dance movements from the last century. First up was a gang of Lindy Hoppers who did their stuff to some blasting tunes from the 30s and 40s. Next up was a trio of Tango merchants, who were amazing. They were followed by a team of 5 tap dancers, including a solo display by Sari Lievonen that was astounding. Then we had a Northern Soul interlude, with DJ, decks, the whole Wigan Casino bit. This was a little light relief and audience participation prior to the day's dark finalé.
One of my favourite 'moments' was the sounds of the Northern Soul club night being interrupted, gradually, incrementally, by the sound of the crippled, decrepit, King dragging 'himself' on inadequate crutches, repeatedly falling on the stone floor, painfully and slowly making his way to to the main stage area to 'perform'. It was a moment of genius to witness all these bright young things who just moments earlier had been throwing themselves around with abandon, sit and consider this consumate, faultless display of abject physical struggle. Some were in tears.
By this point in the night, whether in my head or in reality, things were getting, as Hunter might say, real twisted. The final Dark cakewalk procession had all the main characters plus a couple of new ones, or perhaps variation on the themes of other characters? An Amazonianesque woman (played by the Tap/Tango dancer) in a silver floor length gown with antler corset, a statuesque woman (who'd earlier been seen doing a 'reverse striptease') in Linder's therapy-inducing outfit, but now in golden pvc. And Linder herself all in black, with a blacked-up face and a white brank gag, with a pair of Mickey Mouse ears set atop her head. Like a kind of evil Mickey Mouse Minstrel. The entire troupe were led by Stuart McCallum and friends this time playing a more mournful rag-time piano on wheels, along with every other instrument you can think of, through the caverns, VERY SLOWLY, before stopping in the centre of the space, which had 3 large mirrors placed in it. The various characters then danced in front of these for A LONG TIME. (Jung you say?). Somehow, we proceeded round to the main stage in one of the 2 northern arches where the 'finalé' unfolded, as such. The Muse, the Star and the Witch (crucified on a guitar) danced in the front of the stage, basically until they dropped down dead, while the Queen was wrestled to the floor of the stage by evilMickeyMinstrel Linder whilst screaming 'We're all f***ed. We're all just so so f***ed' Eventually Linder gagged her. The End? Fade to black. Wild and warm applause.

Ten minutes later I'm in the Friday night warzone that is Central Station waiting for a taxi. A man with no legs and one eye asks me to buy him some chips. Women spit in men's faces. The tinseltown rain washes it off. A saxophone plays 'Singing In the Rain.' I want to go back underground. Just five minutes longer Linder, please?

I could say more, but you get the general idea...:)
 
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...I could say more, but you get the general idea...:)

Joe Frady

You should send off your observations to the Scotsman or other paper/artzine. It's fantastic. Like the Cakewalk Queen/king you reconstitute the show for us with your words. Can you remember anything more about the 'no voice' speech; the context, main points? Thank you. :guitar::)
 
Nice work,Joe and Nightingale :)
Do you pair go to much at the Edinburgh Festival?
 
Joe - that was splendid.. so good of you to take the time to detail all of that.. i now feel that i missed all the good bits during my absence.. i want to see it again!!!:p

Cheers
W
 
Excellent photographs of the various characters ~ here

including Linder/Anima/Animus/Animal ~

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:horny:...in a completely Jungian-feminist type way, obviously.
 
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