http://www.rotozaza.co.uk/etiquette2.html

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Curtain Rising - Index

Curtain Rising - Curtain Rising Magazine - Volume 1, Issue 20 - September 11, 2007 - Index

September 11, 2007
EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE CONTINUED
Etiquette Etiquette Etiquette between strangers and friends
By Andrew Field
Contributor
Rotozaza's Etiquette is an elusive,
tantalizing insight into metropolitan
life. Two audience members arrive at
a café. They sit at a table arrayed with
a series of props. They each put on
a set of headphones and the show
commences. The headphones buzz
with the recorded sound of a cafe,
similar to that in which you actually
find yourself, and a voice calmly tells
you what to do and say.
Slowly and delicately, characters
and a conversation form between
the two members of the audience.
Somewhere in the space between the voice speaking
to one audience member and the words coming out
of their counterpart's mouth, a scene (almost like a
mirage) shimmers and appears - a man and a woman,
two strangers, sitting talking in a cafe in Paris.
But it is never as simple as this. Suddenly the scene shifts
and the subjects are looking down on a play, a version
of Ibsen's A Doll's House. Then this scene dissolves and
the subjects are back in the café, where they are then
commanded to close their eyes while the voice in their
ears transports them somewhere else.
As they stare at the person opposite them, they are
at once known and unknown, a familiar friend and a
character in a play - two very separate people. And even
though they are taking part in the same conversation
and the same play, the tapes they are listening to, one
a man's voice and the other a woman's, constitute two
very different experiences. At several points these tapes
diverge, while the audience members continue to carry
out actions together they now have different meanings
for each of them. They find themsleves existing in two
Details +
Promotional image for Rotozaza's Etiquette.
Photo by Bruce Parain.
different locations - one is on a balcony in the rain,
while the other is walking up a lonely hillside.
If at times this web of sounds, instructions and snippets
of conversation becomes confusing, and difficult to
follow, this in itself becomes an essential part of the
show. Questions overlap each other. Instructions are
missed. The subjects fumble nervously with props
and stutter over their lines. Communication begins to
break down in this glorious, intricate kaleidoscope of
identities and fractured conversations.
And then there are times when this jumble of words
and meanings is punctured by small moments of
intimate beauty shared by the two audience members
- gazing down together at a tiny moonlit house sitting
on the table in front them. It is these connections,
conversations late at night with strangers in bars
and cafes, that make it feel like the world is whirling
ceaselessly around a bubble containing just the two
of them. This is the feeling that Etiquette imparts.
Of having shared something special, and just a little
magical.
For more information concerning shows and events performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe just passed, or
to keep up with news ahead of the 2008 Festival, visit the Edinburgh Festival Fringe official website at:
www.edfringe.com
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