Muualla/Elsewhere

Muualla/Elsewhere (The Royal Opera House)

This performance was at Linbury Studio theatre. The show involved four different performances and I was impressed by this Muualla/Elsewhere performance. It was an interactive performance between the animated background and the performer. A human performer was involved, as well as a virtual background. This performance had strong visual effects and it strongly absorbed the audiences' attention. The background images of the space and various creatures felt real. Also, this performance lasted only fifteen minutes and I did not feel as though I was enduring a long performance and it left a stronger impression on me. If this performance was played over half an hour, it would not have had such a strong impact because there were many simple movements with hardly any narrative. In terms of its contents, I am not sure what the director was trying to say though this performance. I felt that it was a visually truly great performance, combined with excellent acting and animation and that it had succeeded as an experimental performance piece but I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of its contents. However, some of the elements in the performance have inspired me and I felt especially that the interaction between the human performer and the 2D animation background could be applied to my personal performance project on metrosexuality. I mentioned in my proposal that the core concept behind my performance was the relationship between the images of real and fake. I believe this technique of mixing real objects or a person with a skillfully constructed 2D background could achieve a strong metaphor and balance of real and unreal.