X, Y: The Soldier's Tale

Description:

X,Y: The Soldier’s Tale was a performance adaptation of L’Histoire du Soldat (1918) within the world of paper theatre directed by Andreas Kahre with music by Talking Pictures ensemble. 

The original score by Igot Stravinsky was improvised and reworked by Talking Pictures’ musical director Ron Samworth (guitar), Peggy Lee (cello), Dylan van der Schyff (percussion), and Bill Clark (trumpet). The ensemble appeared on stage in a specially built set with a dioramic  theatre where the paper puppetry was performed. The cast was Adrienne Wong as puppeteer and assistant director, David Garfinkle as the devil, Hiro Kanagawa as the soldier, and Lesley Ewan as the narrator. 

X,Y rediscovered a seemingly unchanged landscape of insoluble political and moral dilemmas which found their voice in the work’s fiercely melancholic tone, as fresh and as painful as when it was first presented. 

Overlapping and multiple forms of action, fire, brimstone, shifting locations and fluctuating time frames came together in a style that created a bridge between the hopes and horrors of the piece’s past and future.