The Bit: Food
In a diagonal from 1 to 3 Lunch Tables are driven across stage at which are seated actors in prisoner costumes they are performing the actions of eating and carrying trays and plates cups and utensils to and fro like is seen in institutional cafeterias. Blank stares, low levels of unenthusiastic engagement, thoughts turned inward.
The Text:
As if to relish
each step I take
on this great earth
I walk-
to the mess hall.
the only walk allowed.
Alternate Bit:
Draped figure with a long length of rope tied around his waist pulling an actor standing on the other end of the rope enters from 3 as a similarly draped actor enters from 2 pulling another actor standing on the rope he tied around his waist. The pulled actors have trays with a cup and a plate tied around their necks like cigar girls from old time movies. They mime the experience of eating at a mess hall in a prison. As they are dragged past each other they suddenly move in to real time movement and their actions speed up. As they are pulled apart their actions return to a slow motion that suggests that time and motion happen at a different pace in different areas of the stage. One of the draped figures says:
As if to relish each step
I walk this great earth
-to the mess hall
the only walk allowed
The Media:
The Projection Screens:
Dramaturgical Links:FoodImages