One Square Shaft Of Light example essay topic

IN ON IT Performance Response Dada Kamera's performance In On It showcased in the Fresh Terrain Festival is a powerful performance of two gay men, This One and That One, who are working on play within a play. The play they are working on is the story of a man who has just found out that he is terminally ill and only has a short time to live. He tries to tell his son who shuts him out. He tries to tell his wife, and she leaves him for another man. In the end, just before he drives his "blue Mercedes Benz" into oncoming traffic, he leaves his life insurance policy to the wife and son of the man who left with his wife.

This One and That One are victims of the "accident" because one of them is driving the car that the man hits, leaving the other to tell the tragic story. The play confronts issues of relationships, both homosexual and heterosexual. These two cultures collide in the end - literally. Although it is merely by chance, it still points out the conflicted intersection of these two cultures. But more importantly, it reminds me to cherish every moment. It is through powerful lighting design that I am able to follow the complexity of the play and the various storylines that emerge.

The two characters work in three different realities and storylines - moving back and forth from one to another. One reality is the two men working on a play in front of the audience and even breaking the fourth wall at times. Another reality is the characters within the play they are working on. The final reality is the remembered thoughts of the men about their own relationship. The ability to move in and out of these realities could be confusing but are seamless to me, due largely to the light designs choices. As the show begins, the more than sufficient bright white house lights fade to complete blackness as a single ray of deep, blue light rises.

It is focused tightly on something on the floor. My eyes slowly begin to adjust to the darkness, and I can make out a man's jacket lying on the floor. I don't know the importance of the jacket, but the light draws my attention to it. Even though I do not know what the jacket's ultimate meaning is to the characters, this light design choice accomplished its goal - getting me to wonder, "what is so important about this jacket?" From this point on, I'll watch the jacket. This One and That One put it on, taking on a role of the terminal man in the play which they are writing.

The jacket tells me what character they are playing. It becomes an emotional item when That One tells This One, during an argument, that the jacket is his favorite because This One told him that he looked good in it the first time they met. At the end of the show, as the sounds of the car accident disappear, the lights fade to darkness, and the single deep blue light rises as This One takes the jacket and places it back on the floor and exits. I'm left again, staring at the jacket on the floor, but it now has meaning, completing a cycle and reminding me of the small things that are so important in life. The importance of the jacket is highlighted by this light design choice. Because the designer focused only one deeply saturated light on the jacket, I am forced to pay attention to it and understand the meaning it conveys.

At the first moment the two men are both on the stage together, they are lit with lights that are shuttered and focused to create a square area of light. This square area of light is created by multiple lights shuttered at right angles, so that smaller areas can be created with the same rigid effect. The edges help provide a stage area that the two men never leave. The area is quite small in comparison to the size of the theatre. This helps me focus in and feel more intimate with the characters.

I think the best way to describe the sensation would be like looking through a camera and zooming in from a panoramic view to a close-up. This square area of light is the basic look for the reality of the two men working on the play. Although this area may change in size, it is generally larger than the other realities. This reality is also lit with a somewhat warm colorless look that comes from typical theatre lighting equipment. As the two men speak about the play they are working on, This One and That One narrate the story and then choose a role to step into. This One takes off the jacket and reveals a white shirt, becoming the doctor for a scene.

That One puts on the jacket, grabs a chair, and sits as he takes the role of the terminally ill man. It is clear that the reality has changed because as they set up the scene, a smaller cool area of light is left contrasting from the larger warm area of the other reality. This is typical of the reality of the play within the play. Within this reality they always step into the roles of these characters by stepping into a smaller area of light, which tends to be cooler white / blue light in a smaller concentrated area.

The lights are still shuttered at right angles so that the men, at many times, are standing or sitting only in one square shaft of light. If the first reality gave me a sense of a close-up, this reality tends to be almost invasive into the character. The small squares shafts of light also seem to isolate the characters. At one moment, a terminally ill man sits in a chair facing forward with one square shaft of light on him. On the other side of the stage sits his son in a single square shaft of light. Darkness separates the characters as the father tells his son that he is dying.

This design choice allows me to see into the eyes of both characters and see them as individuals in an extreme close-up, but at the same time it creates isolation for the two characters. Eventually, the scene ends and the lights return to a larger warm square area of light, and This One and That One can interact directly with each other again. The other reality of the two men remembering moments of their own relationship is handled in a similar manner. The major difference is that the two are seldom separated by darkness, and the area tends to be a bridge of light between the two making the shape of a thin rectangle on the floor. The two men tend to face each other as they are in this reality, and the audience seems to disappear to them just as it does in the reality of the play within the play.

The color of light varies in this reality but tends to be more saturated, warm colors in comparison to the rest of the play. As the memory passes, the lights rise again to the larger, colorless square, and the men step immediately back into the present reality of working on the play. The scenes tend to move from this present reality into the other realities - seldom cutting from the play within the play to scenes of the remembered past. The lights go from a large square area to individual, small areas where the men are already standing. They never leave the light, but the light just seems to intensify where they stand and disappear in the space between them.

As the scene ends, the lights rise again to the larger square until they either return to the play within the play, with its small, isolated lights, or they turn to face each other as the lights dim into a narrow bridge of light between them. The space seems to breathe as the lights expand and contract over and over again. The repetition of the light patterns in their respective realities adds to the continuity and fluidity of the performance. The performance moves in and out of these realities but the lights help to make it seamless.