When the two worlds collide… The Second Death of Caspar Helendale

You may have seen this blogpost https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/community/blog/2009/11/24/the-second-death-of-caspar-helendale.  When I saw it, I certainly couldn’t resist grabbing a ticket and allowing myself a chance to see the production from both sides of the divide.

Tonight I went to the real life premiere, tomorrow I’ll be inworld for the second performance.   The piece is part of the ROH’s annual Firsts series.  The series is a mini fringe festival showcasing performances from upcoming artists who are outside of the mainstream of the ROH productions. 

It was an interesting evening all round.  I discovered one of my favourite street performers actually isn’t always what they seem – if that makes sense..  I’ve seen an outfit called The Beijing Brothers on and off for the last 10 years playing around Soho, in Birmingham and in Edinburgh during the fringe.  I really like their stuff..  usually they’re playing different chinese instruments as they busk and they’ve always got at least one CD to sell to the punters.  Every time I see them I pick up another cd and say thanks to whatever act of fate that made me cross their path.

Tonight I heard those familiar sounds wafting across the Covent Garden Piazza and made a bee line for it.  I sat for a while listening and enjoying myself thoroughly as they’ve got a new cd out..  I went up to have a chat between songs and discovered that things aren’t always quite as you expect..  there’s a rival group called the Peking Brothers..  and the guy who was playing apparently didn’t have anything to do with them even..  He was flogging their CD though and I must say he played beautifully.  Does it matter?  What really is real and when does real become virtual? I was amused at the thought of a pack of old chinese guys busking on the street playing the music that sounds exactly like some other buskers to be enchanting. 

When I walked into the bar of the ROH I must say I was surprised at the diversity of the crowd.  From luvvies to the basement dwellers via suits, the young, old and virtually everything in between.  Suddenly I thought SL was a lot more interesting in it’s userbase than I had imagined.  Then I came to my senses and realised that there were 4 different performances on in the programme.  That explains the luvvies. 😉

The ROH programme itself was interesting as all fringe performances are.  Like all fringe performances though the artists are too clever for their own good and it does detract from the coherence and impact. 

I did get introduced to a new aerial rope act called Collectif and Then.  Think trapeze without the trapeze.  The audience was completely silent except for gasps as they demonstrated an agility and confidence in their ropework that surprised and amazed..  none of this clapping after each amazing twist and turn – just silence as if they didn’t want to chance distracting the girls.  Supposedly the piece as about how political decisions impact children longterm.  They could have ditched that and stayed with the ropework, all it did was distract from the visuals – which were stunning.  They have a show scheduled for February 2010 in collaboration with a juggler and a chinese pole artist..  Sounds delicious.

Next up was some modern dance thing about male violence.  3 men doing limited dance moves (think those head spin things from the 1980s) really left me wondering if I had time to get a nap in. They did have friends in the audience to clap after each head twirl thing though.  That’s what friends are for I suppose.

The next performance was another one of those blurring the borders of reality and illusion.  Called The Making of Doubt it was captivating.  It enchanted, puzzled and was completely engagingly visual. Unfortunately Saturday night is the last performance on their tour so if you can get down to check it out tomorrow night then do.  On it’s own it’s well worth the ticket price.

 The last piece was the one I was there for:  The Second Death of Caspar Helendale.  It’s an interesting concept – they stream the SL visuals out to the opera house and the music from the opera house is streamed in. 

Jeska Linden turned up looking completely inappropriately dressed but she wasn’t alone there was a least one newbie looking guy in a tshirt and jeans.  At least everyone else made an effort – it was a pre-requiem after all.

As to my thoughts on it.  I’m holding off until after tomorrow night.  I think I need to see if SL changes my perspective.

So if you’re not doing anything on 28 Nov at around 1.30 SLT then come join me inworld as Caspar Helendale spends his last 20 minutes in Second Life.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/2ND%20LIVE/180/223/23.