Aichi Expo: Open Your Mind theater at Mountain of Dreams

It was a fascinating performance. It brings out not only the sense of fascination but also the sense of fear and terror in the audience.

Figures about 2.2 m talls are placed at the four sides of the walls and the audience are to stand in front of the figures to face the centre of the performance. In the center is a floor created by 96 PDPs emitting bright lights. At the ceiling hangs the central figurine called Pan. Pan refers to omnipresence, the belief that god is in all things. Pan has three faces and six hands and is the symbol of nature representing the connection between environment and people.

At last, the performance starts.

The deep resonating sound of the bells are heard. Deep and low. It reminds me strongly that I am in Japan, a country where the bell is heard ever so often in olden days. The music gets some complicated and the pitch begins to get higher, higher and yet higher it can go. There seems to be wild voices crying out loud, voices that cry out from deep within their hearts or rather deep within their consciousness or mebe from their unconsciousness.

At this point, i cannot sense the voices anymore. I am getting scared. I turn around to look at the figure standing behind me. I am glad that it did not move. Its eyes are fixed on Pan. Mebe it would have turn to look at me if it did not have more important stuff to attend to.

Slowly and slowly the music begin to change. Indeed it has move to its second phrase. A phrase characterizes by less screaming and yet more solemn. I feel that the first phrase of the music is like the gathering music. A music to call out to all creatures that the time that Pan will descend has come. Anticipation, great longing characterizes this phrase. As more creatures are gathered the music becomes louder and wilder as more creatures are calling out reaching out to other creatures.

The second phrase is the main ceremony. Indeed the descent of Pan. This phrase ended with the spreading of the long laces that surrounds the figure of pan.

Like all things have to end, the final phrase will be the end of the overture. The music gets softer and ended with an animated scene of Ku-nu leaving the ceremony. Finally no more music is heard and the audience is left to wonder whether they understand what is going on.

I give a storyline to the ceremony. Haha.. I imagined that this is very far from what the director wanted it to be.

All the creatures are part of an ancient world before humans destroyed their world. Very few of them are left and they are scattered all over the world disguising as human. But they kept their customs and every 100 years or so, they will gather to celebrate the descent of Pan.

That is why the music has a wilderness and pagan-ness to it. So what are the creatures? Mebe they are in everyone of us. Just that we dun know. =P