Search by Ciarán Taylor and Carpet Theatre
Three performances took place in dlr LexIcon on 20 September 2019 for Culture Night. The performers were Ruth Lehane, Karl Quinn and Felipe Jóia, with live music by Tim Doyle and masks by Pau Cirer. It was commissioned under the dlr Public Art Programme.
Watch a short video:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUcC9fbQM-E&feature=youtu.be align:center autoplay:1]
Background to the Commission
The commission was to create a performance for Culture Night event at dlr LexIcon Dún Laoghaire. Ciarán Taylor is a director-deviser who specialises in site-specific creations. He describes his initial approach:
dlr LexIcon is a landmark public building with a striking design, which culminates on the fifth floor in an impressive reading area at a very tall window overlooking Dún Laoghaire harbour and Dublin Bay. I wanted to bring the audience through the building from bottom to top, creating a story set in the place that would allow the them to look at the building in a new way, and link it to a world of imagination. I wanted to make a play about reading, and libraries as a source and repository for our imaginations.
Devising
‘We began with no story or script. Working with three actors and then a musician, we spent time observing different parts of the building, and how it is used by the people who go there. We met with librarians to get their perspective. They get a deep satisfaction from offering people something valuable and free. They observed that the library is a sanctuary of sorts for many who use it, a physical place to escape to, and a source of escape to the realm of imagination through reading. Customers and librarians sometimes share their experience of reading and develop a human bond. I was inspired by reading Susan Orlean’s The Library Book, which also became the image of ‘the red book’ central to the plot and design of the play.’
Promenade
Search was conceived as a promenade performance where the audience follow the action through the Lexicon library on a voyage of the imagination. The challenge was to create a piece where the action moves through a building already abuzz with other activities and performances for Culture Night.
Masks
‘I decided to use silent, full-face character masks. This meant the performers did not have to compete to be heard among the other activities taking place, and tallied well with the traditional silence of the library space. With these masks all of the action is made up of moments when we do not speak. We understand the thoughts of the characters through their actions and interaction with place, objects and each other. The ‘real’ location and objects of a site-specific performance help to bring the masks to life. (It also presents challenges for creating theatrical images in an uncontrolled space.) The form draws the audience in, as they have to actively imagine the characters thoughts. The masks also project strong images even from a distance, and so suit the long open vistas presented by Lexicon’s architecture. Music also draws out the meaning of the action and creates a rhythmic framework for the inner life of the characters. The musician performed live on violin and concertina, creating a focus for the audience and allowing a close interaction with the actors.
We experimented with the masks in the library space and outdoor areas. Characters began to emerge and their story developed as we continued rehearsals over six weeks.’
The Play
Cathal comes to the library to return Angela's books, where he is drawn into a frantic search among the shelves for a lost book that holds Angela's secret. He must find it before he loses his mind, but the mysterious librarian is always one step ahead.
The time sequence of the play is out of order at the beginning. It follows the logic of the locations on the journey from floor one to five. Cathal is an older man. His wife Angela has recently died. He finds her bag of library books and is drawn to return them. He arrives by car to the Lexicon car park, where she had recently been. As he figures out the automatic book return machine a note falls from one of the books. The red book disappears on the conveyor belt back into the library system. The note refers to this red book, which he is now desperate to retrieve. He is drawn on a desperate search through the library to find it. The book begins to take on magical properties, while Angela and the mysterious librarian seem to be leading him to the fifth floor.
Gallery
