Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume 12 Number 3, December 2011
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ALAN WILLIAMS
there was just the two of us in the rehearsal hall
Alan performing his trilogy “The Girl with Two Voices”
me listening to the story of his return to England
some fifteen or so years ago, listening to the events
and to his reactions, on two tracks, as it were
the hall in the basement of the UW
with its orange acoustic baffles is actually
a film studio so it was only appropriate
that Alan’s description of Kew and Kew Gardens
projected fantasy versions on my inner screen
I hadn’t seen Alan perform for many years
but had memories of him on stage in plays
and in earlier monologues like “The Cockroach
that Ate Cincinnati,” memories of performance
that will never leave me
what he did in rehearsal of this new trilogy
was to pull me into an alpha state where his life
became my experience and the misery he recounted
reflected mine so that in effect he allowed himself
to become a mirror just by talking
just by sitting there and talking
sometimes struggling with a shoe lace
or pulling apart a muffin, sipping his coffee
allowing “it” to happen between us
in the way we used to fantasize
only live theatre could do