Review-Girl Uninterrupted-HKPFF
20-11-13
By: Gladys Li
You might think, as I did, this Girl Uninterrupted in some way linked to a similarly named film. Well, it isn’t - but it most definitely does establish close relations with many other classic films.
This is a one-woman show performed in a cozy 15 seat venue, a café at KUC Space in Jordan. The simple staging sets up a triangular area, with seats at each corner and candles along each side of the triangle, lit like a route from one station to another. When eventually the show began, the soothing background music gave way to a man’s monologue from a movie soundtrack to which Eve O’Mahony lip-synched as she entered right next to where I was sitting.
Because the venue is so small, the action is never more than a few feet away. I found it fascinating to see all the shifts of movement and expression from the actress playing so close. I found it harder to know what she was trying to communicate…
So here’s my take on it (aided by the Q&A session at the end). The sound-track to which Eve ‘self-synchs’ throughout is a composite of scenes from classic films (Gone With The Wind, The Shining, Rebecca, Some Like It Hot, etc), and Eve rotates from station to station as she ‘plays’ each scene. Sometimes Eve plays all the roles in the dialogue, sometimes only one. Eve kept her movements minimal, which gave me more space to think how the scenes might be in the movie. (I needed the Q&A’s clarification because I’ve not seen any of these films and the volume and sound quality of the sound-tracks was variable so it took a while to know what was being talked about.) Thematically, the show seemed to revolve around the fractured and conflicted nature of Eve’s own sense of identity and sexuality, seen through the prism of these ‘favourite movie moments’ of heightened consciousness.
An especially arresting part was when Eve invited one of her audience all of a sudden to join in the show. Seeing frightened faces in the audience was funny and I was really curious to know what was going to happen to the selected audience member. The picked person was really cooperative and even started a conversation with Eve, so fluently that for a moment I thought this was prepared. But it wasn’t clear to me what this interlude was for – perhaps to project a further ‘persona’ onto Eve’s performer personality?
The performance lasted only half an hour but for me the most valuable part was the Q&A session afterwards. The enactment of classic movie scenes allowed plenty of room for imagination, with different interpretations from different audience members. During the sharing session, you could get more inspiration from them and I also enjoyed a lot listening to the sharing of Eve herself, about how this production started and her reasons (or lack of them) for scene selections and settings.
The performance left me a lot of space to think and made me want to watch all these classic films to see how my imaginings compared to the films’ realizations. (If you have already seen these films, I expect you will find more resonance when watching this show.) As Eve said in the Q&A, ‘It’s up to you how you perceive it’. Doubtless, there are many more different ways of perceiving it besides my own.
This show only costs 50 dollars and I would recommend it to those looking for something relaxing to do after a long busy and tiring day.
Girl Uninterrupted is playing at the KUC Space through November 20th. To find out more details about the event, click here. For more information about the Hong Kong People's Fringe Festival, click here.
Comments
No comment at the moment.