Live from a Bush of Ghosts: deeper into the bush

In Jennifer Baichwal’s film "Manufactured Landscapes":http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/film.php?directoryname=manufacturedlandscapes (which follows celebrated landscape photographer "Edward Burtynsky":http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/) there is a sequence so powerful it gets my vote for most distressing glimpse of the future award. In China Baichwal films a woman, looking like a peasant from the dark ages, as she roasts circuit-boards to melt the solder and retrieve valuable components.

Around her are mountains of e-waste. It is a disturbing crossing of worlds – first world meets third – and a visible sign of the collective waste of our culture that is usually hidden. Tim Carlson, one of the co-creators of *Life from a Bush of Ghosts*, which is part of the just completed "PuSh Festival":http://pushfestival.ca/index.php and continues this week, mentions this sequence from the film in his program notes.

Based on the David Byrne and Brian Eno album "My Life in a Bush of Ghosts":http://bushofghosts.wmg.com/home.php, "Theatre Conspiracy":http://www.conspiracy.ca/ uses the image of a woman roasting circuit-boards (and in turn poisoning herself) as a powerful and appropriate starting point. The Byrne-Eno album is based on Amos Tutuola’s 1957 novel of the same name, where a thick bush of forest is the location for a series of narratives based on traditional Nigerian tales. For this production’s third generation of ghost stories, the location of the narratives is not in a bush but within the e-waste. It is as if the roasting somehow releases the spirits of the Westerners who once used the computers. This is a fantastic conceit, and a lovely crossing of the high-tech and the traditional. Bush of Ghosts is made up of seven sequences – or maybe tracks is a better word – with the different ghosts all played by Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg.

I don’t know whether ghosts have ever had such a cool place to hang out or such cool people to hang with. Bush of Ghosts is absolutely gorgeous to look at. Andreas Kahre’s set is white and elegant, providing a series of surfaces for Candelario Andrade fluid and beautiful images, including the ceiling where a circular creation sits above the playing space. The whole thing is dramatically lit by Jeff Harrison. Behind the playing space, Andrade manipulates the projections in real time while No Luck Club – brothers Trevor and Matthew Chan - provide the music. The music is also fluid and hypnotic. As Simon Ogden mentions in his "review":http://plankmagazine.com/review/theatre/live-bush-ghosts-spirits-digital..., there is something strange about watching Bush of Ghosts from a theatre seat. It does feel like something that should be performed in a nightclub with a crush of young people trying to catch a glimpse.

I think this might link to the main problem I had with the piece. The narratives – the different ghosts stories – do not live up to the textures, sounds or even the creativity of the rest of the piece. There is no doubt that Cheyenne Friedenberg is a magnetic presence and if anyone can walk the line between theatre and dance, it’s her. The character work is a bit broad but this is completely acceptable. It’s not so much the characters but their situations that are surprisingly uninspired. They include a day-trader, a gambling addict and a young dj being abused by an older man. The arcs of these stories are predictable. I’m also not quite certain how they link to any bigger themes at work in the piece. All this is perhaps best illustrated by the day-trader segment which ends with the character hanging himself (perhaps a bit of wish fulfilment that a day trader might have a conscience). The way it is handled by Friedenberg as a performer and technically by the production with her spirit leaving her body is quite simply beautiful – it’s just a shame the narrative is not strong enough.

I seem to piss people off when I say this, but I’m going to try again. Theatre can (and should) borrow from dance and dance can (and should) borrow from theatre but at the end of the day one form must win out, must provide the defining structure for a piece. *Live from a Bush of Ghosts* is one of the most integrated shows I’ve ever seen in terms of the technology and music but that old tension between dance and theatre is not, to my mind, resolved. I think that the rigid, text-based conventions (ie the theatre) used to tell the stories didn’t work within this setting – not only were they not original enough they weren’t fluid enough. I can’t help wondering if the creators had committed more fully to dance that the work might have been more effective; if the ghosts had been more elusive they might in turn be more compelling.

There is no doubt that what Theatre Conspiracy is doing with this show is exciting. It’s also appropriate that my last review for PuSh this year should be for a show that is so ambitious in bringing together different artistic traditions. If they do continue to evolve this show I hope they go further into the bush and leave traditional theatre further behind.

_Live From a Bush of Ghosts from Theatre Conspiracy. Directed by Richard Wolfe. Performed by Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, No Luck Club and Candelario Andrade. To February 15 at Studio 16. Part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. For more information spirit yourself_ "here":http://pushfestival.ca/index.php?mpage=shows&spage=main&id=83#show