Virginia Woolf gave us the print version. The BBC gave us the audio version. Now New York’s Lincoln Center presents the multi-media version of The Waves.
The New York Times reports that Woolf’s experimental 1931 novel is the basis for one of three offbeat programs Lincoln Center will present as part of its New Visions: Literary Muse series during its 2008-2009 season.
All three will combine the spoken word, music and multimedia elements on stage.
Presented by the National Theater of Britain, “Waves” merges theatrics and technology by using four cameras and overlapping projectors to present multiple images on stage at once. The only non-live element is the recurring image of breaking waves.
It’s all part of the National Theatre’s attempt to make theatre more interesting and relevant to 21st century audiences.
The other two offerings in the Lincoln Center Literary Muse series are “Kafka Fragments” by Gyorgy Kurtag and directed by Peter Sellars and “Don Quijote de la Mancha: Romances y Músicas,” presented by Jordi Savall and the groups Hespèrion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya, the Times reports.
“Waves” will premiere in the U.S. on Nov. 12 at 8 p.m. and run through Nov. 22 at the Duke on 42nd Street.
“Waves” was on stage at the National Theatre in 2006 and will reportedly return there this August. Listen to the podcast with director Katie Mitchell.
[…] The Waves reminds us of our place in the world. Our lives are, on the grand scale of geological time, but a single note in the grand cosmic symphony we come in and out of, like a wave emerging, peaking and disappearing in a vast ocean of movement. Today, we know today that humans are a geological force responsible for climate change, mass species extinction, ocean acidification, unhealthy levels of toxicity in our bodies and nonhuman bodies, threatening our very own survival. Woolf never fully let us forget our entanglements with our organic and inorganic (yet lively) co-existents. […]
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I hope you are still as excited when you see the ticket prices. Hopefully there are less expensive options than what I saw on the Web site.
But then, I live in Ohio, so we’re not used to big city prices.
So exciting, Paula! I’m off to investigate. Thanks for the tip!