the man who ate his boots

The man who are his boots marked the second studio base collaboration by Brookes and Pearson; and represented a direct response to issues arising within the recent act of the first five miles, and an exploration of possibilities for the re-examination and presentation of these issues within a studio context. It attempted to address issues of home, of the place we think we belong, of emigration and the impossibility of ever returning, through an examination of the exploits of four men from an area of Lincolnshire. Two who left for Wales, a third who grew sugar in Australia and a fourth who tried to walk to the north pole.

"Weaving together family history, geography, genealogy, memoir, autobiography, forensic data, quotations, lies and jokes; the man who are his boots creates contemporary stories - stories about stories - which value the small narratives of individual lives, as a means of holding the past and the present together".

"Mike Pearson's performance includes anecdotes, traveller's tales, improvised asides, physical re-enactment, impersonations and intimate reflections on the nature of memory and personal loss. Mike Brookes' design creates an innovative aural landscape which allows the spectator to experience performance in a totally new way".

Mike Pearson performed the text of this complex four part monologue among an informal gathering of spectators, contained within a space defined and lit simply by the physical and durational structure of four small back-projection screens. The screens detailed the route of their previous five mile journey, through Brookes' photographic documentation of the surrounding landscape at fifth of a mile intervals. The aural structure of Mike Brookes' design layered music and ambient material from multiple sources to construct a driving sound work that made it impossible to engage acoustically with the spoken text of Pearsons' performance, while enabling the delivery of his voice directly to each spectator individually via short range radio link and the individual headsets of an infra red translation loop. The headsets, simultaneously providing quality vocal relay and acting as ear plugs to dampen the room ambient, enabling: [1] the desired mix within the spectators head individually, [2] an experience of isolation from the collective audience group, and [3] a heightened sense of direct contact with the performer.

The man who are his boots was initially developed and presented within the Centre of Performance Research : 'performance, places and pasts' conference, Aberystwyth, 1998.

 

 

* for further related material please try the informal archive developing behind the chronologies of recent projects at .../shame

 

© Pearson/Brookes