U. S. in Focus Programme
Reid Farrington: The Passion Project
with English with Hungarian subtitles
MU Theatre
30th November and 1st December, 6 PM and 8 PM
40 minutes without a break
galéria >>
Performer: Laura K. Nicoll
Artists involved: Sara Jeanne Asselin, Janet D. Clancy, Austin Guest, Stephen O’Connell
Director: Reid Farrington
Reid Farrington’s The Passion Project is a 40-minute performance-installation. The director, who was working with the New York-based Wooster Group for a long time, compresses the entirety of Carl Theodore Dreyer’s immortal classic silent film The Passion Of Joan Of Arc, in which the young Antonin Artaud appears as well, into a concentration of movement, projection, installation and sound collage.
Carl Theodore Dreyer’s The Passion Of Joan Of Arc is regarded the last classic silent film, the story of which is as mystic and dark as the legend of Jeanne D’Arc. The original negative burnt in fire in 1928, the year when it was created, and so did the second one, which was created of the fragments left out from the original, seven years later. Today three versions of the film exist, all of which appear in Reid Farrington’s work.
On a limited square stage the female performer arranges and rearranges a number of parchment screens in a series of choreographed movements that explode the film into three dimensions. A transformative and dynamic sculpture takes form as the hanging canvases grab hold of the fleeting, flickering images. The film is used as the genesis for a projection environment. This environment captures the close quarter combat between Joan and her interrogators placing the audience inside the film, subjecting them to the relentless rhythm of 30mm film projection. The Passion Project speaks to the ephemeral nature of film and evokes questions about performance as entertainment or living sculpture.
Photo: Laura K. Nicoll
Ticket information: szinhaz@mu.hu, +36 1 209 4014 www.mu.hu
Further information: www.ps122.org, www.reidfarriongton.com