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Head case: TV Productions in Brainy
Philosophy and real life don‘t mix much these days. Most latterday ideas people are stuck too far up their
; academic perches to get seriously involved. keeping their hands clean and
chucking down sporadic scraps of epigram. Michel Foucault. though. was a different breed. prepared for anything physical as well as mental in his not-so- scientific pursuit of truth. He dropped acid in Death Valley and explored his
§ sexuality among the San Francisco gay
scene so rigorously that it would probably have left our own Joe ()rton wilting. In the light of this. his death from AIDS in W84 seemed all the
more resonant.
Now comes Brainy. a wo‘rk-in- progress that never mentions the great man's name. but draws obvious inspiration from Foucault‘s life and work — which. at least towards the end. were pretty much inseparable anyway. ‘lle was an explorer.‘ says Nick Phillipou. who. along with Stewart Laing. is one of the project's prime movers. ‘lle didn't sit on the sidelines and pontiticate. but got up and did it. Here was a remarkable mind who'd learnt as much as he could from books but wanted to go on discovering things with his body.‘
The piece of work that makes up Brainy comes in four distinct parts. beginning with an absurd drama awash with 60s nihilism. before moving into a road movie. ‘kind of like Hie/ma and Louise only hetter.‘ l’hillipou claims. It then moves into the tackicst of porn shows before closing with pure farce.
‘What we‘re dealing with ultimately is form.‘ explains l’hillipou. ‘\\'e want to give people separate experiences rather than integrating them.‘ To this end. a film of Brainy is being made to be shown alongside the finished theatrical product. which will hopefully be ready later in the year. ‘Brai/iy represents the incrediblejourney gay men have made from the ()(Is to the ‘)()s. but by working this way we also want to give philosophy its place in popular culture.‘ (Neil Cooper)
Brainy. 'I'V Prat/actions. ('C'xl. (foSlg’Hli'. l’ri 28-611! 2‘) July.
Tale mates
When the passion-fuelled Hungarian dancer Yvette Bozsik made her first dramatic entrance onto the Fringe with Soiree in 1993, she had by her side a young duet partner named Eva Magyar. The following year Magyar returned, but this time with her own company, The Shamans, and an intense little piece of dance-theatre called The Tale in tow. The whole thing, claims Magyar, was an experiment. It was only when the The Tale began to make waves, first in Edinburgh — where it was wowed by the critics - then at home in Budapest, that she opted to go with the flow and keep The Shamans alive.
The split with Bozsik was, she says, inevitable: ‘Our style is so different. We have totally separate aims. I was an actress for five years, and I still like to use my face a lot when I perform. She [Bozsik] is more just dance, more movement.’
80 what power does the body hold for this actress turned dance-artist? ‘lt’s more interesting to show yourself not just with words,’ she says. ‘You can express things in so many different ways with dance.’ She is also attracted to the ambiguity that dance allows. ‘l don’t want to tell the audience what they should see in my work. I want them to choose what they see. it’s good in The Tale, because people come out with totally different ideas about what’s happened to the characters.’
Like Plna Bausch, the visionary German choreographer whose work
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Thrusting ambition: Eva Magyar in The Tale
first switched her on to dance, Magyar takes all the ideas for her creations directly from her own experience of life. The Tale, for example, is based around her personal belief that you spend your whole life looking for the right partner — and when you finally meet them things just get harder. Kind of depressing stuff, but she insists there are some happy moments. The central image is a potent one, with Magyar and her other half symbolically bound at the wrist, and engaged in a lengthy, sometimes brutal, physical battle. A symbol, perhaps, of the unchanging nature of human relationships, but Magyar has introduced change to the piece, in the form of a new duet partner and stage hubby, Csaba Horvath — another highly respected Hungarian dancer. ‘iie’s another man, with different experiences,’ she says. ‘So he gives the piece a totally new power.’ (Ellie Carr)
The Tale, The Shamans, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 8-Sat 12 Aug, 8pm.
54 The List 28 Jul-10 Aug 1995