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Five Truths

On 24 July 2011, I visited the Five Truths installation at the Victoria and Albert Museum and livetweeted my reaction. Rather than write up my thoughts into a traditional review, I decided to record that realtime reaction, and some of the responses to it, using Storify.

  1. First, some context, so you know what on Earth I'm reacting to.

  2. And now, my reaction.
  3. MattBoothman
    At the @v_and_a, experiencing #fivetruths. Arrived midway through the loop. Correctly identified Brecht, muddled the rest completely.
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  6. MattBoothman
    Stanislavskian Ophelia's drowning clearly a choice: she composes & arranges herself, in the bare minimum of water. #fivetruths
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  7. MattBoothman
    Not that she looks happy about it - but it feels like a decision nonetheless, not a reaction. #fivetruths
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  8. MattBoothman
    Brecht's Ophelia next. She's once again deliberate, making herself up like her own undertaker. Very Gestic! #fivetruths
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  9. MattBoothman
    Brecht's Ophelia addresses us directly, of course. Unwavering eye contact. And singing! Love a bit of Brecht. #fivetruths
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  10. MattBoothman
    Stanislavski's Ophelia shows us why she dies. Makes the act tragic, cathartic. Brecht's tells us. Makes the act an accusation. #fivetruths
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  12. MattBoothman
    Already the Artaud version seems quite dependent on the camera angle. Close up through the fishtank. Would it work on stage? #fivetruths
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  13. MattBoothman
    Artaud's the Theatre of Cruelty one, right? Can anyone give me a 140-character crash course? #fivetruths
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  16. MattBoothman
    @DanRebellato I think maybe my secondary school drama teachers agreed, and that's why they only taught Brecht and Stanislavski...
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  17. She took the goldfish bowl off-camera, goldfish and all, and it was never seen again.
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  19. Brecht-Ophelia does a lot of strident singing. Grotowski-Ophelia wails. Because the underlying structure of the five pieces is the same, these high-energy moments tend to occur simultaneously. Stay in the installation long enough and you get a really strong sense of the rhythm of the template speech.

  20. MattBoothman
    The weird distortion on the camera is distracting me from Terry's performance as Artaud-Ophelia. #fivetruths
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