And then of course there’s time

Words and image by Assistant Director Henry C Krempels

 

7 November, 2018

Today was not the first rehearsal we’ve worked intensively on scene transitions and may or may not be the last. DeLillo has a playful sense of chronology in this play and the time passed between scenes is, hmm, erratic to say the least. Instead, he’s way more interested in what happens if you’re many things at once; alive and dead; married and divorced; in solitude and in company. 

And he’s scattered this play with tiny deaths too. In my last blog I mentioned that the question, ‘At what point is someone dead?’ ran through the centre of this play. I still think it’s true, but now I think the focus is not just on death. There are re-births too: relationships that have come and gone and then come again; the same people, years later, in different bodies; exes; step-mums who becomes friends; friends who become wives; wives who run away with their “nightgowns ablaze”. 

The main recipient of this playfulness with time is the character of Alex, played by Joe McGann. We see him at several different intervals in his life, not too far apart, but far apart enough that his life is substantially different. This week Joe and I were discussing the work that his character makes as an artist. We stumbled on an interesting link here, that Art (of the kind Alex makes, at least) eventually succumbs to time too. At some point the person stops and time takes over.

So how time passes in this place surrounded by sand is fascinating to grapple with. And you know what? If my job allowed it, I would happily just sit in rehearsals and watch the small plays that happen in the time between the scenes. 

 

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