The lastmaker

I begin this blog in celebration of a performance I went to tonight in NYC at PS 122. The Lastmaker, the last performance of the Goat Island Group who have been collaborating for 20 years.. Magically they wove together riveting repetitive movement, St. Francis of Assisi, Lenny Bruce, the words of shoemakers, Emily Dickinson and music played on a saw, all the whilst building a small replica of the Hagia Sophia conceptually.

The last shot, though it was live theater, I will long remember it as if it were a film with a last shot -
Two planks of wood, approx. 1 ft. x 8ft a piece, overlapped in a V shape so that they meet at one corner. They are held up by 3 step stools, a performer at each edge of the planks. The first holds a pair of shoes in her hand, the second a hand-saw in his, and the third holds the central dome of the Hagia Sophia. Puff the Magic dragon plays and like a woodland sprite, Matthew Goulish, soliloquies. As I write about it can sound like nonsense, or madsense, but it was strangely blissful and full of sense. An elegy to labor, loss and love and all the vagaries between.