Saturday 20th March
Today we celebrated crossing the Equator. I should say that while the students and others were enjoying them selves around the swimming pool and being dunked and heads shaved George and I were enjoying the privacy and quiet of our cabin! Dreadful I know but I have been through this ceremony so many times and I am getting more and more in need of space as the voyage goes on. George had alot of work to do correcting papers etc.
Today we celebrated crossing the Equator. I should say that while the students and others were enjoying them selves around the swimming pool and being dunked and heads shaved George and I were enjoying the privacy and quiet of our cabin! Dreadful I know but I have been through this ceremony so many times and I am getting more and more in need of space as the voyage goes on. George had alot of work to do correcting papers etc.
It has been a beautiful day, very hot in the sunshine but perfect for the celebration. I have been considering my 'Performance class' project and have almost decided on doing a Samuel Beckett play called Rockaby and involving some of the older women on the ship....if they will corroborate! It will mean that I direct their voices on tape and then record my own voice over or under them and actually in performance sit with my mask on in the middle of our acting area while the voices 'swirl' around me. My mask is very white, with peacock blue eye lids, high black eye brows and tears on the cheeks (see above). I suddenly felt I wanted to represent older women somehow and as this is a play about a woman 'declining' and then just fading away alone and isolated I thought it just might work. David I. any suggestions gratefully received! It's not at all what Beckett had in mind but then he's not around to protest...
I spent part of tonight watching students performing at their Talent Show: there is alot of talent among the 580 of them....and some are still in the development stage! The Union was so full I couldn't get a seat so finished up watching it on TV in our cabin, but one loses the atmosphere which is half the fun. The next show is the Crew's Talent show and if last year is anything to judge by it will be fantastic.
We're all looking forward to Mauritius: we arrive there on the 23rd March. Liz, Audrey, Chris Hill ( a man for George!) George and myself are going to stay at the Oasis Beach Club for one night and day. It is pretty reasonable in price for Mauritius, a three star only but for one night on a beach who cares? I think India was petty draining for many people and so relaxing on a Mauritius beach seems a good idea.
Just discovered today that there was a terrorist threat in Kochi while we were in Kerala. There certainly were alot of police and uniformed people around but I thought nothing of it. I'm glad that we didn't realise it might have taken the gilt off the ginger bread a bit. The world is a scary place when you start traversing it...
On that pessimistic note I shall retire to bed with my Tami Hoag book and see what terrors go on in the Louisiana Bayou!
Hi, Maggie:
ReplyDeleteI think your idea to perform Beckett's 'Rockaby' as a multi-voiced presentation is great. Also, I admire your courage!! I suppose the main thing would be to make absolutely sure that it is the dying woman who is the unwavering focal point. Beckett's text is both rivetting and profoundly disturbing, isn't it? I don't envy you the job of deciding when she (you, that is)speaks and when the other particpants do. I think it might work superbly if the other voices are not more than about five. Any more than that would risk taking the focus away from the central figure. By the way, I don't know whether you can get on the net from your vessel but there is a superb recording of 'Rockaby' by Beatrice Manley on www.BeatriceManley.com/recording-beckett.
She was a Beckett fanatic, as you know. It is quite spine-chilling. Like having an ice-cold needle driven very, very slowly into your soul! It runs about 15 minutes, as I recall, but - if you can get it - I guarantee that you will be unable to stop listening to it before the end, even if the boat is sinking! How i do go on, don't I? Do, please, let me know how it goes. I wish I could be there to see/hear it.I think Becjett was the bee's knees. David.
Hi, Maggie; It's me again, I'm afraid! I found myself unable to stop thinking about 'Rockaby' so much that I couldn't get the damned thing out of my head and had to download it and listen to it all - I don't have the script, of course. It strikes me that it may work very well indeed for a main voice and a small number of 'chorus' type voices. One can never be sure -at least, I can't - whether she is speaking aloud, either to no-one or to herself, or thinking without speaking, or hearing voices in her head or her memory, or whether someone else - ? Beckett, or one of Beckett's relatives speaking out of Beckett's mind -is saying things, or repeating things she has said. Typical Beckett brilliance, in fact, damn his eyes! Actually, I have come close to persuading myself that it would work better for several voices than for a single speaker, provided that the 'central' voice is the commanding presence; and your great voice and experience - not to mention that magnificent mask - should take care of that. Just thoughts that occurred to me-disregard them totally! Why don't I learn to mind my own business?! But do please tell me how it went, when you have time. David
ReplyDelete