Absence and Presence | Performance Space New York

Absence and Presence

Absence and Presence

Absence and Presence

This acutely intimate work by internationally acclaimed Andrew Dawson, co-founder of the Mime Theatre Project, was honored with the Best of Edinburgh Award and the Herald award at the 2005 festival and makes its U.S. premiere at PS122.

Dawson’s father died in 1985 and his body lay undiscovered for ten days. The trauma compelled Dawson to craft this non-vocal dialogue with his grief, guilt and loss using sculpture, video, mime and the emotionally articulate movement for which he is known.

Click to read an interview with Andrew Dawson in this issue of Movement Research’s Critical Correspondence by RoseAnne Spradlin.

Join us for a talkback with the artist after the performance Wednesday May 3

*Sunday April 30 at 2 p.m: Private Performance &Reception to Benefit Carol Tambor Theatrical Foundation. For more information and invitation, visit www.bestofedinburgh.org or email carol@caroltambor.com.
Best of Edinburg

On Wednesday, May 3 please join us immediately following the regularly scheduled performance of Absence &Presence for a very special presentation of Andrew Dawson’s Space Panorama – a sparkling recreation of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Standing behind a large black clothed table, accompanied by a narrator and music from Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony, we explore this surface and the spaces above it using only hands, arms and upper torso to create a constantly entrancing documentary of the entire mission. Andrew dextrously takes us from Houston to the Moon and back down to Earth again, conveying the colossal distances and risks involved simply through the arrangement of one hand in relation to the other, with the odd facial expression thrown in for good measure.

The moon landing was a tele-visual event. Space Panorama triggers the memories if those pictures, the massive rocket at launch, the moments before landing, the helicopters and aircraft carriers on their return to Earth. In Space Panorama we can also create the shots that no camera could ever see and together they convey a sense of the eternity of space, and the triviality of our exploration of it.

Created in 1998, Space Panorama was conceived as a miniature piece of theatre but over the last ten years it has toured worldwide.
Performed by Andrew Dawson
Narrated by Gavin Robertson
Directed by Jos Houben

April 27 – May 7, 2006

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