LENZ is a little different from the other plays in Plays and Playwrights 2007 in that it was performed environmentally in a hotel. Tell us more about the experience of doing the show that way.
LENZ was initially conceived in Montreal as a proscenium-stage play inspired by a short story of the same name written by Georg Bruchner. A large scrim was hung downstage separating the stage performance from the audience and a film was projected onto the scrim with actors performing behind it in order to create the illusion of entering into the image. The performance was not well received by audience or press and was eventually abandoned and placed at the back of the company’s creative shelf. Two years later the piece was revisited as a result of an article in the New York Times about a young woman trying to piece together the death of her bi-polar brother who lived on the street in and around the Port of Authority Bus Terminal. Sabrina and Stephen both felt a profound personal connection to the story and decided to re-examine the material within the context of a relationship between a young woman and her estranged relationship to her mentally ill brother.
The company already had a history of creating successful sites performance (three of the core company members had previously worked with another sites specific company in Vancouver called Radix Theatre from 1990-1997.) and one of us suggested (at the best of times it is often forgotten who actually brings what idea to the group and they simple become group efforts) we should reinvent the piece as a performance installation. Two new characters were added and the piece was presented in three separate rooms of a hotel with each audience member randomly picking a room key that indicated the order in which they were to see the rooms. Each room could accommodate 15 people and lasted about twenty minutes a piece. Two rooms contained live performances while the third room consisted of a film projected onto a salt-covered table.
Was LENZ created for that specific location, or was it intended to be performed in any location of that sort?
LENZ was originally performed in 2000 at The Gladstone Hotel a turn of the century itinerant hotel located in the now gentrified west side of downtown Toronto. The piece was created specifically for this location and after the production it was impossible to imagine it being successfully remounted in any other location. However, when we arrived in New York a friend who had helped us find the original location in Toronto pointed us in the direction of Ye Olde Carlton Arms. At first it appeared that these locations were dramatically different, but we quickly realized that the unique personality of each settings brought out powerful yet different aspects of the work.
LENZ also differs from the other Plays and Playwrights 2007 entries in that it was collectively created by the entire bluemouth company. How did you approach creating the text that way?
The process usually begins with the writing. We get together at someone’s house and place all of our ideas, images and writing onto the table and begin sifting through for connections. Themes and obsessions begin to naturally emerge and often associations are made to existing works of literature as each of us follows our own tangential path of research. Very soon afterwards we go into a studio and immediately start working on our feet. This is when the sections begin to develop and the larger themes like schizophrenia and such are arrived upon. The final and galvanizing part of the process involves finding a location and installing the work into a frame that illuminates qualities intrinsic to the material.
Does the company have a standard method of creating each new work, or does it change from one piece to the next?
There is definitely a general approach as outlined above that governs many of our collaborations, however each project offers a whole different set of challenges as well as different methods for resolving these problems. For example, different individuals from the group may initiate different projects and greatly influence the approach we decide to take and ultimately influence whether we decide to make an experimental film or create a performance text.
What are the origins of bluemouth, inc.? How was the company first started?
Bluemouth inc. was created in the spring of 1998 when four artists from different artistic disciplines came together through a shared interest in developing hybrid performance. The collective's first piece was entitled Mapping Currents for the Edgy Women Festival at Studio 303 in Montreal, Quebec. The project established the company's mandate to collectively create interdisciplinary performance works. The piece that followed entitled, Ceasefire, was performed in a park in the plateau region of Montreal during the 2000 Montreal Fringe Festival.
In the fall of 2000, bluemouth inc. relocated to Toronto, Ontario and immediately produced American Standard at Bar Code, followed by LENZ at The Gladstone Hotel in May of 2001. The company began to become recognized for its unique style of engaging audiences in intimate and unusual settings.
bluemouth, inc. lists The Wooster Group, Pina Bausch, and Ballet C de la B from Belgium among its influences. What is it about these artists, and others like them, that appeals to your company aesthetic and the kind of work you do?
We would describe our style as being eclectic. Each of these companies appeals to us for very different reason. They collectively represent the established avant-garde and all share a refreshingly unique approach to performance. Specifically, you could say we are drawn to The Wooster Group’s highly integrated use of technology, Pina Bausch for her sense of scale and Ballet C de la B for their use of text with movement. The list could easily be longer. Basically we are inspired by anyone or anything that creates a unique artistic vision that challenges the audience-performer relationship and moves us emotionally.
What's up next for bluemouth, inc.?
Bluemouth is scheduled to perform our newest creation, How Soon is Now, this coming May as part of the spring sites specific season at The Theatre Centre in Toronto and we hope to remount the piece in New York City the following fall. How Soon is Now is an ensemble piece equally inspired by Prokofiev’s much loved children’s tale Peter And The Wolf and the 1931 German crime film “M” directed by Fritz Lang as well as Emir Kusturica’s 1995 film Underground.
Interview with bluemouth, inc was conducted by Michael Criscuolo February 2007.