Live From a Bush of Ghosts

Ahhhh the beauty of fresh, innovative and significant theatre! Yesterday I had the privilege of attending Live From a Bush of Ghosts, a superb show presented by Theatre Conspiracy. The set ressembles a live DJ set with a dance floor, where the only actress plays an array of intimately tied stories about technology, while two DJ's and a video artist create virtual worlds for her characters. The stories are frighening and contemporary, and the actress uses impressive body language to haunt the spectators' imagination. I particularly enjoyed a part about a stock broker who is fatally tied to her cellphone and begins to breakdown as the market literally crashes all around her.

The show was especially significant to me because the music is inspired by David Byrne and Brian Eno (and I'm going to their concert in a few days!), and the initial part about a Third World electronic trash dump echoed last Thursday's talk by Edward Burtynsky's (his images of these dumps are the most frighteningly beautiful examples of our daily complicity in the Earth's destruction).

This show is playing at Studio 16 (1555 W. 7th Av), at 7pm tonight and 4pm tomorrow (Sunday). Don't miss this!!!

Here is the description on their site:

Spirits arise from the toxic smoke of First World electronic trash dumped in the developing world. A boy lured by an internet predator, a suicidal stockbroker, a heavy metal televangelist — these are a few of the ghosts haunting a woman who melts down computer components to retrieve precious metals for pennies a day.

With music inspired by Brian Eno and David Byrne’s seminal recording My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Theatre Conspiracy delves into the fallout of digital culture. Electronic band No Luck Club performs along with live video mixes by Candelario Andrade as dancer/actor Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg creates multiple roles to conjure a ghostworld that is a physical, visual, sonic feast for the senses.