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Splendour |
Under
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Electronic
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PROGRAMME NOTE: David Barnett, lecturer of drama, UCD on The System Click HERE to View    |
THE
SYSTEM Parts I&II By Falk Richter Part I – Electronic City translated in cooperation with Goethe Institute by Marlene J. Norst Directed by Rachel West A RAW production in association with Project Arts Centre. Irish Premiere 5th January 2006.  Connect-Collect-Delay-Porn-Love-Service industries-Globalisation- Mediasation- Homogenisation-Downsize- Outsource-Disconnect Enter the groundless space of THE SYSTEM One of Germany’s leading contemporary writers and directors, Falk Richter’s double bill THE SYSTEM confronts you with a heightened sense of what it means to exist in a highly digitised, globalised consumer-society where everything and everyone seems to be speeding faster and faster towards an unknown goal. Where human life is valued in profit margins and everyone is disposable. In Electronic City – Part I of the double bill, Richter presents a neo-romantic love story incorporated in a multi-layered, reality TV documentary entitled “The Life of Joy”. The heroine is global standby support in the airport service industry and she’s desperately seeking, Tom, her George Clooney look-a-like, mid-level corporate executive. Tom, however, has forgotten all his pin-codes and is trapped in the corridor of his “Welcome Home” hotel. Without the technological support upon which his entire existence has become reliant, Tom slips into panic and psychosis. "Once again director Rachel West of RAW is working in association with Project Arts Centre, continuing their commitment to a repertoire of challenging and innovative world drama, a “challenge to which West and her cast rise superbly” - Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times. THE SYSTEM -Parts I&II is presented in conjunction with a workshop and post show discussion with Falk Richter, an exclusive screening of Mark Bauders documentary, Grow or Grow, and a performed reading by the ensemble of THE SYSTEM Part IV – Hotel Palastine, in a specially commissioned translation by David Tushingham. CAST: Adam Fergus, Orla Fitzgerald, Emma McIvor, Phillip McMahon, Kieran McBride PRODUCTION DESIGNERS: Set Andrew Clancy Costume Suzanne Cave Sound Denis Clohessy Lighting Aedín Cosgrove Video Martin Rottenkolber Image design Nick & Chloe COMPANY: Rob Usher, Tara Furlong, Aoife O’Toole, David Barnett, Joe Stanley, Jeanine McCormick, For Project: Willie White, Niamh O’Donnell David Quinlan, Dairne O’Sullivan, Aisling McGrane, Annette Devoy, Kate McSweeney, Joseph Collins, Barbara Beck REVIEWS: “ The universe of THE SYSTEM, the first two parts of which are given a lucidly impressive Irish premiere by Rachel West, is Beckett’s entropic cosmos, in which identity dissolves into amnesia, language loses its meaning and becomes a mere cry to fill up the silence, and humanity itself seems like a dying anomaly on an indifferent planet. But Richter sees these conditions not as an existential imperative, but as a political product, the consequences of a media-saturated, high-tech, market-driven globalisation. [...]Richter’s distinctive contribution is in the peculiar combinations and confrontations of familiar elements, and the ingenious mixture of forms, from monologue to video (superbly realised here by Martin Rottenkolber), from stand-up comedy to absurdist ballet, and from direct satire to a strange, fragmentary poetry. [...]Richter’s bone-dry wit, beautifully captured in translations by Marlene J Norst and David Tushingham that are so articulate that they don’t sound like translations at all. Richter is best when he is funniest and there are times when his humour, both satiric (the arrogant media language of the TV team in Electronic City) and absurdist (the childhood memories of the ageing businessman in Under Ice) is scintillating. [...]The other factor is the quality of West’s production, which is designed with acute precision by Andrew Clancy and Suzanne Cave, and performed with terrific skill by an outstanding cast. In Electronic City, Emma McIvor’s astonishing fluency as the dominant member of the TV team and Orla Fitzgerald’s wonderful command of different registers as she acts out her assigned role are utterly compelling. Adam Fergus’s rendition of the glib consultant in Under Ice is also memorable for the way it gradually pushes realism into preposterousness. And West’s deft control of the plays’ constant shifts of style and mood maintains a focus that is as sharp as it is unblinking.” Irish Times – Fintan O’Toole “THE SYSTEM is demanding material, and every member of the cast shines. Tremendous credit to director Rachel West for shaping a production that is both vibrant and visceral” Daily Ireland – Shane Perez “ Electronic City is a digest of raving sociological, hysterical art-speak and haughty Guardian commentary. It's delicious. The excellent cast rises to the challenge. Emma McIvor, in particular, as the writer/director figure has the bitter fluency to be a post-industrial Patti Smith. This should be seen by more than the Project's natural audience.” Irish Independent -Brendan O'Carroll BACK to TOP |
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 Photo - Nick&Chloe      Photos - Martin Rottenkolber, Gerry Balfe-Smyth |
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| All images, video & audio © RAW & Rachel West 2007-2010 | |||||||