About the show
Distant Forces is a 60-minute-long performance that combines a set of live music with multi-surface visual projections. It is ostensibly a rumination about the loss of a parent, or of one’s own child, about grief of the most personal kind. The narrative trajectory is simple - a child is born, a child is taken away from its mother, a chorus grieves the loss of the child. Each musical piece symbolically drives a single section of the narrative.
Mesopotamian incantations are used throughout the performance as a textual bridge between the musical notes and the overarching theme, echoing the conflict between a lost past and an ongoing present.
The sonic programme consists of Molly Joyce’s ‘Rave’ for piano solo and electronics; Peteris Vasks’s ‘Pianissimo’ for cello solo; Simon Knighton’s ‘Pendula’ for piano quintet and electronics, followed by Toshio Hosokawa's string quartet 'Floral Fairy' and Alfred Schnitte's Piano Quintet*.
(*Schnittke's Piano Quintet can be swapped for Toshio Hosokawa's Piano Quartet 'Water of Lethe'.)
Creative Team
Director
Eldad Diamant
Producer
Ugnius Pauliukonis
Music Director
Gunda Baranauskaite
Music
Instrumentation
Piano / 2 Violins / Viola / Cello / Electronics
Music by
Molly Joyce - 'Rave' for Piano and electronics
Peteris Vasks - 'Dolcissimo' for solo Cello
Simon Knighton - Dynamical Systems: Pendula (Piano Quintet
Toshio Hosokawa - 'Floral Fairy' (String Quartet)
Alfred Schnittke - Piano Quintet
OR
Toshio Hosokawa - 'Water of Lethe' (Piano Quartet)
Tech Rider
Venue
Venue that can achieve near darkness (for projection)
2 x small risers, e.g., 100x100x40cm
Video
Stage-facing projector to illuminate the back-wall of the venue
Audience-facing projector to illuminate the on-stage projection screen
Projection screen that spans the width of the stage (can be provided)
Drape system to rig the screen (can be provided)
Lighting
Basic programmable lighting rig
Sound
Stereo PA
6 microphones and stands (ideally direct to control)
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