A dancerʼs studio with its dizzying array of mirrors is the setting for "A Bigger Splash," inspired by the choreography of Pina Bausch.
A talented choreographer struggles to create a new dance work – without much success, until a mysterious visitor arrives with tape-recorded conversations and enigmatic video fragments that hint of long-buried secrets.
Disembodied voices, the plaintive wail of an Arab prayer, the presence of a dead rock star, visions of an empty swimming pool -- all come to haunt the choreographerʼs studio – or are they in fact all in her mind?
Part dance-in-the-making, part mystery play, “A Bigger Splash” is a paean to an unique creative consciousness and to lost romance, where life and death dance as one.
CHARACTERS
ELSA: 30-40, a choreographer/dancer. Her choreography closely resembles early Pina Bausch. (“Bluebeard,” “Café Muller,” see YouTube)
JANE: 20-30, a dancer, collaborating on a new dance with Elsa
EVERETT: 30-40, a poet, worn around the edges
MOSS KNIGHT: 23, a dead musician
SETTING
Unit set. A dance studio, preferably with floor-to-ceiling mirrors, so the actors will be doubled, at least. There is an empty swimming pool, though it need not be visible. In an ambitious production, the letters of Jane and Everett could be projected on the back wall.
Note: the entire play is a collage-in-the-making and will result in a dance [excerpts of which could be a video played at the end – the music I prefer is Sigur Ros, Untitled 6, E-bow].
Furthermore: I’m not sure how much video should be used throughout the play – it depends on the tone of the staging.
TIME is now and before now.
