"if he thought about it at all, but I don't believe
he ever thought, it was that he and his shadow, when
brought near each other, would join like drops of
water; and when they did not he was appalled"
- from 'peter pan' by j.m. barrie
blinking and playful, an industrious black and white
projection of fleur elise noble appears to open and close doors. she scrubs
screens clean with a broom, drinks wine and manages to inhabit a multitude of
scenes projected upon very large pieces of paper.
beginning with blankness or blackness noble proceeds
to construct a series of charming mini-narratives and episodes with the aid of
multiple digital projections. there were two very large, cinema-type screens of
paper, one was placed upon an easel, another was shaped like a figure. torn and
angular papers scattered upon the stage floor also caught the light and
projections so that they all flickered alive. paper folded and unfolded,
screens shifted and fell in an attempt to catch up with noble’s various actions
and exploits.
the pursuit or chase ribboned throughout the
performance and here multiple screens and surfaces allowed for multiple avenues
of escape. noble pursued a paper-cut-out version of herself and evaded an army
of stern-faced puppets attempting to puppeteer her. the projected and
stop-animated puppets formed an eccentric family, a comedic chorus of
antagonists. doubles and shadows flickered, appearing and disappearing.
despite their intentions to foil noble’s best-laid plans
the puppets were no match for the omnipotence of the author/artist. throughout
the performance noble flawlessly commingled drawing, silent-film, stop-animation,
live-action and recorded sounds. all interacted seamlessly with animate and
papery set design. most disconcerting of all, noble manipulates depth and
surface, her black and white projections distort perspective so that one is
forced to surrender oneself entirely to a bewildering encounter of actual,
cinematic, pictorial and theatrical space until it is difficult to know where
each begins and ends. this is compounded by noble’s multiple entrances and
exits, the slamming of doors and the echo of her heavy bow-legged footfall.
self-reflexively, noble is unafraid of stopping and
starting scene within scene, bookending each with heavy black scribbling, the
screwing up of paper, a direct
apology to the audience, a tearing up of supports or even conflagration.
fleur elise noble
'two dimensional life of her'
february 17-21
new performance festival
aotea centre, auckland
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