This essay is an analysis of The Theatre Practice’s production of I Came at Last to the Seas held at Singapore’s Esplanade Theatre, directed by Kuo Jian Hong. Written by playwright Wu Xi, the play inverses common understanding of Buddhist philosophy, exploring the unrest and instability of the six roots of sensation through the interwoven narratives of the play’s six central characters. The play is an inquiry into the ideas of belonging and identity: both culturally, as a Chinese in the Chinese diaspora, and, existentially, as a human. Spanning past, present and future, six individual journeys are driven by the search for self-identity; they are, individually, metaphors of one of the six roots of sensation, and collectively, an extended metaphor
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Members of the 14-man cast come together to operate as one unit. This idea of equal importance is epitomized: actors portraying central characters are, in separate scenes, stripped of their individuality, and are ‘relegated’ to form part of the supporting ensemble, performing as ‘set piece’. For example, ensemble members work together to push the platforms, and at other times they use their bodily gestures and material bodies to express inner emotions and create movement in space. This indifference towaryaaad actor-as-character or actor-as-set-piece removes hierarchy and diminishes the importance of the characters in themselves, highlighting their materiality.
The main modes of visual and aural engagement are through image, video, music and sound. Loosely extrapolating concepts from Fischer-Lichte, these mediums are perceived in and as their materiality, creating atmosphere and mood, and at other times their material form is perceived as semiotically charged. They are sometimes narrating, sometimes contextualizing, and sometimes illustrative; there are different levels of interpreting and perceiving these sensory
Members of the 14-man cast come together to operate as one unit. This idea of equal importance is epitomized: actors portraying central characters are, in separate scenes, stripped of their individuality, and are ‘relegated’ to form part of the supporting ensemble, performing as ‘set piece’. For example, ensemble members work together to push the platforms, and at other times they use their bodily gestures and material bodies to express inner emotions and create movement in space. This indifference towaryaaad actor-as-character or actor-as-set-piece removes hierarchy and diminishes the importance of the characters in themselves, highlighting their materiality.
The main modes of visual and aural engagement are through image, video, music and sound. Loosely extrapolating concepts from Fischer-Lichte, these mediums are perceived in and as their materiality, creating atmosphere and mood, and at other times their material form is perceived as semiotically charged. They are sometimes narrating, sometimes contextualizing, and sometimes illustrative; there are different levels of interpreting and perceiving these sensory