Governor's Island is an interesting performance space. Today's performance by Harmattan Theater on the west side of Governor's Island on Kimmel Road foregrounds the temporal and historical frameworks undercutting the island's geography. Battlements, military outpost, penitentiary, the island's reworkings demand a new iteration of space and scale. Harmattan Theater's Henry Hudson's Forgotten Maps embarks on precisely this expansion of the boundary between water and the built environment. Using a brass pot, the performance literally draws upon the Hudson Bay's water to forgive the island's history of violence and ritually move beyond its history of bloodshed and deception. At the heart of the piece are 2 early american axes, nails and some white beads: the price the Dutch paid the native peoples for Governor's Island.
The peculiar military geography of Governors Island demands a flexible and mobile choreography and blocking to fit the contours of the island's curvature. The 1800 map of Colonel Viele was influential in the approach to the contours and topography of the locale of performance at Governors Island. Searching for sandy beaches in the historic part of the island was an exercise that led to the emergence of the site of the piece.
The piece ends with the Ghost of Henry Hudson wandering through the island's periphery, singing a dirge in Cape Verdean melancholia.
No comments:
Post a Comment