Her sweater is so orange, I thought, captured by the bright neon attire of Sara Hess, an actress at Theater HORA. The hoodie emanated a glowing orange hue as a result of the strongly diffused light of the stage. Her unfocused gaze to the audience perplexed me as I tried to understand why she was squinting at the audience with a confused expression. Little did I realize that I was witnessing the work of Theater HORA and noted Jérôme Bel.
A collaboration between Jérôme Bel and Theater HORA, “Disabled Theater” is considered the quintessential model of a real and controversial theatrical performance. Theater HORA is a company known to believe in the abilities of disabilities. By this belief, it emphasizes the strengths and peculiarities of a person’s disability and looks to enhance a performance given these differences. Jérôme Bel, on the other hand, is notorious for his strong approaches to controversial materials.
The partnership of these two different artistic entities, created a highly applaudable performance. “Disabled Theater” was and still is one of the greatest theatrical performances ever melded from contemporary settings. As a performance where the actors played themselves, the show is bound to reach a cleverness hardly surpassable. Bel’s script to the play is aimed to resemble a realistic representation of a character. What better way to learn about a person than with an interview? This setting, however, is not conducted as an usual form of interview, but rather an international collective interview. The international factor, one of the most interesting elements of the play, is given by the difference in languages of both actors and director and audience. Jérôme Bel, a French artist, Theater HORA, a German company, and the audience, from New York, all differed in linguistic comprehension. An interpreter is then necessary to allow the performance to unravel and demonstrate the irrelevance of a language barrier in the portrayal of a particular message or issue.
Because of this collection of responses through one interview, Jérôme Bel created a panel-like stage with a stage for performance in front of the carefully positioned chairs. Each scene is played by a question asked by the Jérôme and then translated through the interpreter. The actors, then, take turns in exhibiting their responses, from quiet gazes to carefree dances. The most interesting aspect of these presentation, is not only the genuine realism with which all actors performed their roles, but rather the background responses which they may have unknowingly released during their colleague’s segments. Oftentimes, in fact, I found myself smiling at the quirky relationship between Julia Hausermann and Remo Beuggert, whom were sitting next to each other and bobbing their heads to the rhythm of Damian Bright’s dance. Touched by the abilities of these disabilities, I left New York Live Arts with a different perception of privilege as a factor not determined by physique or mentality, but rather by talent and strength as I was able to witness things that even I could never do, no matter how ‘privileged’.
As a consequence, Jérôme Bel’s piece leaves matter with a controversial theme. What is to happen to the performers post-“Disabled Theater”? Apparentely, notorious for his artistic talent, Jérôme Bel is also known to be capable of moving onto future artistic projects without much of an affectionate adieau. His superficial parting from a project can then be seen as a perplexing issue as these actors have exposed their disabled essences to a wide audience and are then abandoned once the performances end. However, I believe things will turn out well. As performers, the actors have clearly developed a strong sense of fellowship toward one another and I am confident the bond goes beyond the simple pretentious acts of a play. Supporters of the touching movements started by “Disabled Theater” will also, hopefully, engage in a realistic solution to the rehabilitation of the actor’s routines in the world. Although, Jérôme Bel may view it as a mere artistic venture, “Disabled Theater” should otherwise be considered a movement which gained recognition among a variety of artistic fanatics. And a movement will always cause change.
Keith Merlin Anne Ilagan (Blog B)
