Text: Jamie-leigh Hargreaves for Factory International , We take a look back at the beginnings of the project with the creative team. The Truman Show was probably the first time I heard his music, then someone recommended Koyaanisqatsi [scored by Glass]. Before we got to do the piece, Sendak passed away — so that came to an end.
Phelim asked if I would like to work with him on a new piece that would be a kind of replacement, and that turned out to be the Tao of Glass. PM : The show became about the stories and conversation between me and Philip, and whether anything grew from that. Actually, Philip was interested in the fact that there was nothing there.
Tao of Glass is about what emerges from the space where there is nothing. Phelim McDermott. KH : I think when we first spoke about the show, what I was most interested in was the idea of absence. PM : On one level, this show is about a number of dreams not happening. There was this really genuine collaboration. PM : I told Philip stories, he improvised, I responded to his music, and then he responded to me.
It will do something to how you listen, how you perceive this piece of theatre. The show is a bit of a collage, I think — it comes from lots of different places. There are echoes thematically across all the different stories, and when you glue them together, the whole is transformed. Kirsty Housley. PM : Kintsugi is a form of Japanese art where you take pieces of a broken vase and fix them together with golden glue, and it becomes more beautiful because it highlights its flaws.
I would say that, on some level, the show is like a piece of kintsugi. PM : One idea of what the show was going to be was that I might ask Philip eight important questions — about creativity, life and mortality. So he may have asked me the questions without telling me there were eight questions. During the workshops, he may have asked all the questions and got the answers, but I was not privy to the system. KH : That feels like a really important element of the show, though: that there are just some things that are impossible to articulate with words.
