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The Container Project
from XL Air
The Brussels Universities ULB and VUB are occupied by hundreds of sans papiers who demand a regulation of their situation. Since the end of January most of them are on a hunger strike. On wednesdsay 18 March, the sad anniversary of a coalition agreement that never became practice, art students together with Brussels actors, musicians and writers organised an event on the Place de la Monnaie: the Belgian state originated there, the sans papiers had learned the national anthem in the three offical languages. A blue container was placed in front of the opera house and during that whole day the container was a podium, a concert hall, a monument and a radio station.
Produced by Martine Ketelbuters and Jan Bulckaen, with the voices of the Sans Papiers, Thomas Bellinck, Willy Thomas, Benjamin Verdonck, Thomas Devos and Brussels musicians.
Even The Dead Wear Headphones Radia Edit for Resonance.
Recorded live at the London College of Communication, 12 March 2009.
Ed Baxter writes: This is a large-scale ensemble work which relies on bricolage. It follows the traditional (quite English) detective procedural format, chosen for ease of generating material. The script was developed in a couple of sessions with John Wynne's undergraduate students at the LCC. About ten of them contributed to the text in one way or another, ranging from small ideas to large portions of the finished dialogue. Others worked on gathering sound effects, providing incidental and live music and sound beds. Others still worked on the technicalities. Some people did a lot, and a few didn't turn up. We recorded it in one take as a 45 minute piece, with some longish scenes designed to be edited in the Radia mix. The final take was interrupted by a fifteen minute forced break (computer malfunction, inevitably) which threatened to destroy the momentum of the performance. No one of the performers (about 25 of them) could hear the whole thing as it unfolded, so there was a lot of trial and error and guesswork involved. The idea was that by sticking precisely to the script it would somehow work. In this edit you can hear the joins, flaws and false starts. I think it has enough charm to get by – and apologise in advance to the majority of Radia listeners for the very English and very text based nature of the work. Thanks to John Wynne for the gig, Ciaran Harte for his Wellesian vision, Chris Weaver for support and Nick Hamilton for the edit.
NB this drama contains strong "post-watershed" language. Any resemblance to any persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Licensed under Creative Commons.
Cast List: Clinton - Russell Callow; Close - Alan Shotter; Weiner - Valdemar Gudmundsson; Mower - Daniel Scroggins; Lousier - John Wynne. design, music and effects production, script development and performance by Alberto Sanchez, Alexander Williams, Allan Shotter, Andrew Wordsworth, Ashkaan Fattahian, Calle Buddee Roos, Daniel Scroggins, Dawid Wasilewski, Drew Campbell, Giuseppe Giunta, Greta Pistaceci, Jakob Gierse, Janno Vaartjes, Jonny Hill, Luciana Bass, Max Thornton, Mikko Virmajoki, Niall Farrell, Philipp Köster, Robert Kubicki, Romain Heaf, Ruben Ganev, Russell Callow, Ryszard Salmanowicz, Sean Simpson, Stefan Newcombe-Davis, Sutchara, Thomas Laxton. Written and workshopped by Ed Baxter and first year students on the LCC sound-art course. Produced by Ciaran Harte. Directed by Ed Baxter. With thanks to Chris Weaver, John Wynne and Nick Hamilton. The full 45 minute version of this piece is also available: contact info@resonancefm.com
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