So, December approaches and we are working all steam ahead towards our presentation of Lost in Translation in Liverpool at St. George’s Hall. Since the piece was first shown throughout Canterbury in June it has undergone a number of changes. Back then we traipsed around the city centre, all dressed in white, carrying our white suitcases, and setting up a number of installations to represent various cities: Belfast, Oxford, London, Leeds, Liverpool, and Inverness. Lost in Translation aimed to map these other cities onto Canterbury city centre. However, in preparation to the piece being taken to Liverpool we have had to find a way of transposing this into an indoor environment. Since the venue is the beautiful and historic St. George’s Hall there were a number of practical limitations to take into account: no sticking tape onto the walls, no painting the floor, etc. As a creative exercise this has been a very interesting process. How does a project transform when the setting changes? How can the structure of a piece alter, whilst its spirit remains the same?
So, in answer to these questions, this is what we will be doing in Liverpool.
We will place 17 suitcases, one for each city participating in Portrait of a Nation (www.portraitofanation.net), around St. George’s Hall as if they were lost property (lost property – lost in translation, see, we are a witty bunch). These will all be different suitcases: old, new, trendy, practical…. Each of these suitcases will have a micro installation inside it, or spilling out to its immediate surroundings. Some of these installations will reprise our work for the Canterbury tour this summer (i.e. the a cut-out of the Thames snaking out of a suitcase), others will be completely new. The aim of each of these installations is to work as a mini-interpretation of each city (sometimes concrete, sometimes abstract). How do you fit a city into a suitcase? All suitcases will be interactive. For example, people will be free to rummage through some, whilst they will be able to take something away with them in other cases, or even leave something behind. The way in which the public should ‘relate’ to each suitcase will be clearly indicated in a set of instructions on the inside.
That all begs the question as to what we, as performers, will be doing during the day. We will still have the personas of lost tourists. We will be in our white costumes, with our white suitcases. Walking around the building individually we will directly talk to the public, asking them where they are from, what city they have visited…. Like tourists we will be collecting things. So, we will ask people to five us something from their city (whether it is a train ticket, receipt, or whatever they just happen to be carrying, or we will be able to write something down). We will then cover ourselves with these bits and bops, pinning them to our clothes and suitcases, or even allowing people to write directly on us. So, throughout the day we will become moving, changing, human-installations.
This new version of Lost in Translation will be shown at St. George’s Hall in Liverpool on Monday the 1st of December, from 2pm till 6:30pm, as part of the closing events of the Capital of Culture year.
So, in answer to these questions, this is what we will be doing in Liverpool.
We will place 17 suitcases, one for each city participating in Portrait of a Nation (www.portraitofanation.net), around St. George’s Hall as if they were lost property (lost property – lost in translation, see, we are a witty bunch). These will all be different suitcases: old, new, trendy, practical…. Each of these suitcases will have a micro installation inside it, or spilling out to its immediate surroundings. Some of these installations will reprise our work for the Canterbury tour this summer (i.e. the a cut-out of the Thames snaking out of a suitcase), others will be completely new. The aim of each of these installations is to work as a mini-interpretation of each city (sometimes concrete, sometimes abstract). How do you fit a city into a suitcase? All suitcases will be interactive. For example, people will be free to rummage through some, whilst they will be able to take something away with them in other cases, or even leave something behind. The way in which the public should ‘relate’ to each suitcase will be clearly indicated in a set of instructions on the inside.
That all begs the question as to what we, as performers, will be doing during the day. We will still have the personas of lost tourists. We will be in our white costumes, with our white suitcases. Walking around the building individually we will directly talk to the public, asking them where they are from, what city they have visited…. Like tourists we will be collecting things. So, we will ask people to five us something from their city (whether it is a train ticket, receipt, or whatever they just happen to be carrying, or we will be able to write something down). We will then cover ourselves with these bits and bops, pinning them to our clothes and suitcases, or even allowing people to write directly on us. So, throughout the day we will become moving, changing, human-installations.
This new version of Lost in Translation will be shown at St. George’s Hall in Liverpool on Monday the 1st of December, from 2pm till 6:30pm, as part of the closing events of the Capital of Culture year.
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