Manchester Premiere
“Johnston, a bold smuggler, thought of carrying Bonaparte off by means of a submarine vessel.” The Memoirs of Chateaubriand
“The soul is an underwater creature.” Alexander Kluge
I made you a submarine is a multi-layered, surreal and wonderful story that begins with Muhammad Ali as Billy the Kid and ends by the seaside with a lobster, a lost bride, a handsome sailor, Napoleon Bonaparte and the mysterious arrival of a submarine.
The performance takes its starting point from Johnston’s desire to carry off Napoleon from his prison island of St. Helena by means of a submarine. From here on it unfolds as a poetic reflection on ambition and failure, action and immobility, effort, lightness, doing it, not doing it and then doing it anyway.
The inspiration for this piece comes from two main source materials; the first a small text by the Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje from The Collected Works of Billy The Kid about a significant instance in the life of the American Wild West legend. The text describes the death of one of Billy’s close friends, Charley, before his arrest at Tivan Arroyo by the Sheriff, Pat Garrett. In it, Charley, who is shot in the stomach when stepping out of a hut, is given a gun by Billy and sent towards his killers and his own death.
This scenario is repeatedly ‘acted out’ in the first half of the performance - yet in such way that the physical actions and movements are only faintly reminiscent of the narrative that is spoken through a microphone - the narrative hangs above or clings to the actions/movements as a separate layer.
The second source material is the memoirs of the French writer, Chateaubriand, particularly from the chapters concerning the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, more precisely the mentioning of the mysterious plans to rescue Napoleon from his prison Island of St. Helena via a submarine.
In the performance, the two separate strands of narrative are interwoven. The dying Charley becomes the imprisoned and dying Napoleon Bonaparte. A submarine appears on the stage and the setting turns into a sea-scape. We see the dying Napoleon in his submarine, around which the naked life of the multitude unfolds: a lobster passes, sea gulls fly by, a cardboard record player is switched on, a bride, a handsome sailor and a mermaid constitute a cross species love triangle, fish and birds mingle in a sea-sky, everything accompanied by the murmur of the waves, the cries of the gulls and the on looking audience.
Conceived and directed by Swen Steinhauser (formerly performer and Artistic Director of Deer Park) and developed in collaboration with six performance artists, including greenroom regulars Alice Booth (most recently appearing at greenroom in Proto-type Theater’s Whisper), Anna Wilson (Until Thursday and Plane Performance) and Simon Bowes (Sometimes… Co).
This new piece uses movement, fragments of text, audio-visual images and atmospheres, fragmented narratives and rhythmical structures to construct a world in which ideas, landscapes, forces and sensations float and circulate.
For more information go to www.myspace.com/hauserperformance
