The Axis Around Which Two Human Destinies Circle
The production Hello, Out There! by the Latvian ensemble from the Latvian Academy of Culture is faithful, authentic, and fair to its name. A veiled, sometimes dreamlike atmosphere in an empty space. Disorientation between freedom and confinement –– physical and psychological. A call into the void, with the hope that a response will return in the form of another's voice rather than one's own. And to top it off, two evocative performances by the actors, excelling in well-handled, pithy, and at times absurd dialogue and gymnastic stunts on the tightrope.
This one-act play by the American writer William Saroyan tells the story of two humans in a prison cell - a gambler, convicted of rape, and a naive young cook. Matador Prison in Texas is a bizarre setting for a romantic encounter. The man is being prosecuted not only for a felony, but also for a gambling mishap. The woman is despondent in her Texas hometown, which resembles a prison cell in its drabness and banality. Their common interest, and thus their interpersonal bridge, is not only a lightning-fast romantic attachment, but also a desire to escape to San Francisco.
The editing that the original text went through was shifted by the creators to the plane of loss of freedom, loneliness, and disorientation in one's own psychological motives. Saroyan's text oscillates between noncommittal small talk, lyrical and telling exaggerations of feelings, and at times humorous situational allusions to the generally circular situation in the prison cell. The added movement-acrobatic elements around the rope hanging from the ceiling (as the only scenic element, to which the prisoner was tethered the whole time) unleashed a proxemics-inspired dance –– at times a clumsy shuffling around, at others an intimate bonding. In contrast to this considerable bodily manipulation, the use of movement etudes was an interesting contradiction. The words said something, but the body said something else. Hence the planned escape to San Francisco remained a fantasy, impossible to those trapped in a cell.
