Mystery of Clock. New Music Concerts and University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music co-production. Roland Auzet, direction, featuring Aiyun Huang, percussion and Mark Fewer, violin. Multi-media presentation with performance, video, and music by Ehwa Hong, Alexandre Singier, I-Lly Cheng, Javier Alvarez and J.S. Bach. Fleck Harbourfront Theatre, 8 p.m., November 9.
A rare confluence of music, theatre and video, The Mystery of Clock struck more than one happy chord in a Harbourfront Centre audience ready for a taste of the avant-garde. A production nurtured over a number of years by French director and musician Roland Auzet, his distinguished fellow percussionist Aiyun Huang and the veteran violinist Mark Fewer, it combines minimalist theatrical techniques, abstract video imagery and contemporary music to create an immersive environment that offers a poetic interpretation of the human condition.
Inhabiting a Theatrical Environment
On an empty stage featuring a large screen at the back, a man (Fewer) enters burdened by a large bass drum which he’s carrying on his back. He walks slowly around a room, carefully looking for a spot to place his gear.
His hesitancy evokes Beckett, which is reinforced when he off-handedly extracts a violin after placing down the drum. He begins to play while also muttering words bemoaning his solitude. His playing becomes more abrasive as the lighting becomes darker — and then, voila, turns bright white, introducing a woman (Huang).
The Drama Begins
The woman responds to the man’s alienation at first but soon begins to shout at him. Is he too needy?
The music grows heated as potential intimacy is fought against by the now angry woman. Strobe lighting adds immeasurably to the emotional atmosphere as the music grows frantic, and the screen’s video images display large static lines.
What’s Love Got to Do With It?
The game is afoot and played out on the stage. It’s the ancient story of two people trying to connect, told in bold ways. The structure for The Mystery of Clock is a musical score with endless variations.
At one point, the man and woman circle the stage, held together by an immense cord that is attached to their matching headsets. Later, they methodically embrace each other but too quickly come apart.
For a beautiful, almost still period of time, she places small items on the floor beneath a pendulum from which rice flows. The tone and rhythm of sound change as the rice strikes each of the items. Eventually, she lies on her back as the pendulum swings just above her and the flow of rice over the objects — paper, a toy xylophone — creates music.
The man makes his music with the violin, sometimes mournfully, sometimes romantically, often frantically. She plays the marimba, drums and finally starts to create music with sounds evoking the startling vibrant nature of xylophone.
He responds, playing the violin, echoing her bravura style. Have they finally created a match? With videos showing spherical images, especially clocks, one imagines a circle of love and perhaps harmony being achieved.
Is the Clock ticking or is it the Beating of our Hearts?
Mystery of Clock’s program notes ask, “What if our lives were nothing more than a network of invisible clocks, synchronized by the echoes of emotions, memories and human connections?”
If we accept that question, then humanity’s soul or spirit is reduced to that of a clock, a dreadful proposition. The best response to that query is the production just shown by New Music Concerts and UofT — it’s filled with the anger and love of music and theatre and film, not the daily treadmill of clocks.
The drama presented in this impressive production is about a couple fighting and embracing each other. It’s about love, not the humdrum banalities of a mechanistic existence.
As exciting as the production is, perhaps Mystery of Clock needs a new name.
By Marc Glassman for Ludwig-Van.
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