Silent When Loaded

Linda Mussmann takes the conventions of mystery and suspense and strips them down to their basic formal structures — creating an unfamiliar collage of the familiar in which everyday words, expressions and utterances initiate the movement, sound, and the images.

“Time & Space Limited created the spell-binding atmosphere of a mystery play without a single consecutive word of text or sequential line of action.”

- The New Haven Register

The piece was first produced at Yale University in 1985, and again in 1986 for the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio.

November 10, 1985

Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT

written, designed, and directed by LINDA MUSSMANN

in collaboration with CLAUDIA BRUCE

music composed by SEMIH FIRINCIOĞLU

performed by BRIGITTE BLEY-SWINSTON, CLAUDIA BRUCE, JAIME EINBINDER,

MARGOT LEVERETT (clarinet), SEMIH FIRINCIOĞLU (piano), BEVERLY AU (cello)

lighting technician MARK SCHUYLER

Linda Mussmann, interviewed in The New Haven Register:

“It’s rather interesting that I had been thinking about a mystery this summer. Then, when I came to Yale to look at the Sculpture Hall I thought it was a perfect place for a mystery to occur — it’s awesomeness, its long shape. So the two came together coincidentally. Visually it will be like an installation but there are always things you can’t do. People would really be upset, for example if we started pounding nails in the Sculpture Hall. But limitations as well as positive forces are part of the challenge.

“The audience is also a crucial part of each work, which is why I’m never interested in the video tapes I’ve seen of our performances. Our work is meant to be done live and the way an audience interacts influences a performance. The text is completely written and we don’t improvise. But there is leeway to stretch out and we play off one another as well as the audience. This adds a level of spontaneity.”

Mark Schuyler operating the light board during rehearsals at the Yale University Art Gallery.

Composer/pianist Semih Firincioğlu rehearses.

Semih Firincioğlu, interviewed in The New Haven Register:

"In the case of this presentation I’m taking familiar themes — like “St. Louis Blues” — but using them in unfamiliar ways. The music has a tension-producing, crime quality which we know from mystery movies and, in fact, I listened to several Hitchcock soundtracks while writing it. But I’m using basic elements like, say, a pizzicato note on the cello. We all know what that sound means and everyone hushes down when they hear it, waiting for something to happen. But in this piece it never happens.”

February 1986

Merce Cunningham Dance Studio, New York, NY

written, designed, and directed by LINDA MUSSMANN

in collaboration with CLAUDIA BRUCE

music composed by SEMIH FIRINCIOĞLU

performed by BRIGITTE BLEY-SWINSTON, CLAUDIA BRUCE, JAIME EINBINDER, INGRID REFFERT, MARGOT LEVERETT (clarinet), SEMIH FIRINCIOĞLU (piano), BEVERLY AU (cello), PAUL EVANS MITCHELL (double bass)

lighting technician MARK SCHUYLER

production assistant PAULA SLOAN

photographer JOANN BAKER

Jack Anderson, The New York Times:

“The stage was filled with teacups, which everyone kept rearranging. Films showed rural scenes and waterways. A text concerned time, distance and the problems of listening, seeing and remembering. There were swayings to statements about new-mown hay and whirlings to phrases about colors, doors and the August moon.

Lists of places and dates were recited. Sometimes they appeared to be connected by free association. At other times, they were bound linguistically, as when a dancer murmured, “New Haven, New Paltz, New Orleans,” and several other cities with “New” in their names. Cryptic remarks about “China” could have referred either to the country or to the teacups. And the constant shifting of the cups suggested the performers were pondering the way lives can be measured.”

*Lake* (8mm film) as seen projected in *Silent When Loaded*

Jack Anderson, The New York Times:

"Many sequences were lyrical, even nostalgic. Yet the production involved more than sentimental retrospection. After spoken references to “a crime,” cups were piled to form a tower, which was then toppled. A dancer collapsed and a cup was placed on her body as if it were a tombstone. Other dancers found they could not remember whether a certain year was 1986 or 1968. And when they discussed someone whose slip was showing, one never knew for sure whether the “slip” was an article of clothing or an error.

Uncertainties and ambiguities increase. As they did, one might have realized that just as it was hard to say what was happening in this production, so one may also have trouble remembering what one did yesterday or last year. In “Silent When Loaded,” all steps and sounds seemed loaded with significance. But one could never predict how and when they would fire.”