| Joor Oofhand’s operatta-vibritone ‘Clay Hands Across Soft Field(s)’ was an ambitious foray into a new kind of moosical theatre experience. An interactive performance, it offered select islanders the chance to be literally immersed in the complex web of drama and vibrations that formed the basis of the ‘show’. Ticketholders would be seized at night from their chalets by burly theatre-ushers, roped, then bundled into a cart (wooden) and taken to an undisclosed location that looked quite a lot like Chen Inlet, where they were trapped under a kind of woven net, and forced to witness the fourteen-hour operatta from underneath. Vibrations were passed through the net and via a series of huge metal trumpets sunk into the cliff. The singers were wired up, so that on certain notes, specific audience-members would light up and rise slightly on a jet of warm air. ‘Clay Hands’ was ultimately let down by an over-simplistic plot of boy meets girl, loses girl in fog, refinds girl in another location, loses girl again in more fog, then gets promoted to a management position. Critics agreed that this was a step sideways for moosicals, rather than forwards, and the operatta has never since been restaged (legally). |
