Live From a Bush of Ghosts: Spirits in a Digital World
Analytically, this is a tough work to discuss. *Live From a Bush of Ghosts* isn't a play or a dance piece, nor is it a concert or a video instillation; it manages to be all these things simultaneously. It's a contemporary art mash-up that in less talented hands could easily have become a snarled and tangled mess. It bears an ambitious mandate and for the most part succeeds at it. The piece, produced by "Theatre Conspiracy":http://www.conspiracy.ca/ and part of the ongoing "PuSh Festival":http://pushfestival.ca/index.php?mpage=home, ends up being a live performance version of a very good concept album, dense and ominous, but ultimately cohesive.
The playing area at Studio 16 is set up as a kind of Zooropian Star Chamber, with DJ/Video tech booths presiding over a circular dance floor. Every inch of the playing area serves as projection screen, from floor to walls to ceiling, to the performer herself. Holding court over the performance of Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, behind their banks of computer instruments, is visual designer/projection artist Candelario Andrade and local Hip Hop DJ team No Luck Club, comprised of brothers Trevor and Matthew Chan. The piece is structured as a 'set-list' of stories acted/danced by Ms. Friedenberg to the projected imagery and dance hall rhythms of the three digital overseers: a theatrical mix-tape of techno-commentary. Each story 'track' is unique in its style and direction, yet the music provides a satisfying congruity to the piece as a whole; its construct more concert than play. In truth I felt as if I should be watching this Bush standing in a sweaty group of club kids, all of us clutching bottles of Stella, heads bobbing to the beat in one of those great hip hop clubs Vancouver has never been able to sustain for longer than six months, instead of the rather mature and polite observatory provided by a festival venue. It's the kind of art that should be felt more than merely witnessed. With the volume turned up to eleven.
The stories themselves are a bit of a mixed bag. The opening track, entitled _Our Lady of the E-waste_, presented a furtive woman plucking components off of a circuit board that was being roasted over a camp fire. At first I thought this was some kind of dystopian future-punk commentary portending a pretentious evening of art, but the program notes revealed that this e-waste harvesting is now common practice is some areas of China, having replaced agricultural harvesting as a way of making money. Sobering. The next piece, _Day Trader_, was a bit on the nose: stressful jobs are psychically dangerous etc., but as this album played on, track to track, all the components of the piece; the music, video, stories and the skill and exuberance of Ms. Friedenberg all swirled together to create an entirely unique and engaging performance. Theatre Conspiracy is part of a movement in Vancouver that is taking bold steps in integrating technology into traditional forms of theatre to see where it might go next, and because of them and works like *Bush of Ghosts* we're starting to gain national recognition as a truly progressive theatre town. And this fits the PuSh mandate quite snugly.
_Live From a Bush of Ghosts from Theatre Conspiracy. Directed by Richard Wolfe. Performed by Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, No Luck Club and Candelario Andrade. To February 15 at Studio 16. Part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. For more information rave_ "here":http://pushfestival.ca/index.php?mpage=shows&spage=main&id=83#show