Improvisation

Abstract

Actors in the rehearsal space are presented with an array of objects and told to choose one, then to explore it, allowing the thing itself to suggest ways to give it life. One performer chooses a gas mask, seemingly dating from World War I. It is made of canvas, with black, tinted-glass circles over the eyes and a metal canister near the nose, holding a poison filter to make the air safe to breathe. Through an exploration of its textures, weight, size, fit, comfort, and limitations, the mask begins to reveal its qualities. The gas mask is rapidly transformed from a facial mask into an alter ego that is friendly and menacing at turns: a bird of prey one minute, canine-like the next. Gradually its war-determined qualities come to dominate, and it becomes an ally.

Play as a state in which meaning is in flux, in which possibility thrives, in which versions multiply in which the confines of what is real are blurred, buckled, broken. Play as endless transformation, transformations without end and never stillness. Would that be pure play?

Tim Etchells¹