Sophia=(Wisdom): The Cliffs

Anna Sokolova
Feb 4, 2024
4 min read

New Theatre Sydney, February 2024

The review

“Sophia=(Wisdom): The Cliffs” by Richard Foreman. I would guess the Wisdom is there because this is the meaning of the “Sophia” in Greek. Written in 1976, it has sisters, amongst tens of other plays: “Total Recall (Sophia=(Wisdom): Part 2” and “Vertical Mobility (Sophia=(Wisdom) Part 4”. “Sophia=(Wisdom): The Cliffs” at @newtheatresydneyIs produced by Patrick Kennedy Phenomenological Theatre @phenomenologicaltheatre (the production photos are stunning).

Patrick Kennedy has directed eight Foreman plays in the past in UK, but this will be his first time directing a Foreman play in Sydney. It is a work made in the frame of Dada and is an example of the true avant-garde. The sound landscape is rich. From Barocco to David Bowie, from tango and ragtime to Grace Jones. From dissonant strings to the tunes reminding the “Kill Bill - 2” soundtrack. Storylines are smeared, mixed, truncated, but the visual elements are made crystal clear. Characters with names (there is even their story described in the program, but it is impossible to get that from the happening on the stage) are wearing Restoration-style costumes decorated with lace, feathers, styled wigs, and heavy makeup. They have white faces and painted pink makeup around their eyes. These are the faces of mimes - a clean space to express emotions or highlight the absence thereof. There is a mountain climber in the traveling outfit, with short skies and big glasses. The other five, named Factory Workers, have some kind of mid-20th-century uniform, with pale faces and bright red drawn bow lips. This work is a bit of a provocation, a test, a game with the audience. Suddenly, a scene was stopped on the stage, a warning sound horn, warm yellow lights flooding the seats, leaving the performance space dark. After several seconds of musical pause, the lights are switched back to the stage. A pleasant, calm baritone (modulated voice of Patrick Kennedy himself, I guess), commenting, asking, confusing, giving, and taking away the meaning of the happening. In the very beginning, this voice was commenting on Max: “Here is a man who makes great internal efforts. Who releases energy through his fists. Do you understand that when he is making a certain effort inside himself, he imagines his hands in the shape of fists? Look. Look what is happening to Max. Find words to describe it.” Lights are back on the stage, on Max - his hands are covered by a rich layer of lace.

There are mathematically precise gestures, dialogues without emotions, no matter which words are used, and a lot of humor. For example, in a game with space, there was a character entering the stage with a miniature set sitting on his head, copying the set outside.

The ensemble of actors is exceptional in precision, discipline, and total control of their bodies, not letting an extra look or small move disrupt the prescribed schematic. Each keeping own manner of moving and talking masterfully. Every single name deserves to be mentioned here.

If I remember correctly, the meaning of a quote from a public lecture by Robert Wilson, a guru of scenography, said “the move of a hand is an event; the turn of a body is a culmination”. This work is an illustration of this thesis. The space is filled with objects and characters, and every move is noticeable and done on purpose.

Purpose… Not trivial to extend that from each given limpid moment into that of the whole work. First ten minutes or so, I was trying to match the story to the happening on the stage. Then I gave up. Just let it get in and - as it has been offered by the voice - to live the experience.

From the program: “... my work tries to capture the absent present. That is the precise moment when you experience anything. By the time your consciousness has processed it, that experience has already become a memory. No matter how hard you try, no matter how much effort you put into breaking the shackles and restraints of the language you were born into, it becomes impossible to accurately express the experience. …”

Then everything clicked together. It was allowed to not understand the story, or even to see that there is no story. Allow to sink into the surgically clean theatre experience, what was not emotional, not resolving anything, not playing with any social or political dramas or sensations (this could be refuted, remembering what Dada’s proclamation was about, but I am not going there, too biased, I am a Russian by blood).

The performance has been created, materialized as something very physical and real, weighted with all objects used on the stage, but at the same time, it felt ephemeral, disappearing a moment after its appearance, like sand flowing through fingers.

This work is challenging and unusual, quintessentially theatrical. New to the conventional stage, but felt belonging to a family of some work made in (for) the Carriageworks, a mecca for experimental theatre just several hundred meters up the road.

It was an experience. Not to recommend (i.e., to share responsibility for the decision), but to inspire you to decide on your own to go and see it.