Is the Dialogue Read
“Is the Dialogue Read” is a self-described “spoken-opera” which deals with “the memory of disconnected things.” The piece displays early explorations of two themes which echo throughout Linda Mussmann’s career: The American Midwest, and the deconstruction of language.
1983
Time & Space Limited (TSL Storefront, 139-41 West 22nd Street, New York, NY)
written, designed, and directed by LINDA MUSSMANN
in collaboration with CLAUDIA BRUCE
with Roy Faudree, Jessie Dunn-Gilbert, Tony Zanetta, and Miss Moon the White Cat
“All noise ceases to be still.”
Reflecting on her Midwestern upbringing, Mussmann posits that the flatness of the region’s landscape is reflected in its colloquialisms and cliches. Polite questions like “How’s the weather?” are asked compulsively without necessarily expecting an answer.
“When you’re a child and you’re very tired, what you hear in the room becomes this strange disconnected thing… I take those phrases and twist them and work them into the sound of the phrase instead of the meaning”
On stage, it appears as if a tornado has touched the set. Chairs tumble, screen doors spin, and blinds are left askew.
Each actor has their own spoken aria, interspersed with chorus sections posed in the 19th-century portrait style.
In a climactic moment evoking “Alice in Wonderland”, the stage door is suddenly swung open, revealing New York City’s bustling 23rd Street in harsh daylight.
