Aleksandra Mir’s  Antarctica: A Play

(an experiment in performance)

 

On the 28th November 2015 the twin worlds of my technical work in broadcast and fine art and my artistic centre in theatre collided when I facilitated the presentation of Antarctica: A Play  hosted by the Playgoers Society of Dartington Hall at Studio 31 at Dartington.

 

10 years earlier Aleksandra Mir had been part of a group of Artists assembled by French artist Pierre Huyghe who sailed from Argentina to Antarctica aboard the Tara.

 

http://oceans.taraexpeditions.org/en/m/about-tara/les-expeditions/antarctic/

 

Throughout the voyage she kept an ”artist’s log”, noting down parts of conversations and it was this that formed the text of the piece.

 

As this material was already online Aleksandra wished to remain anonymous until the day of the experiment to avoid any pre-fixing of the piece. It wasn’t hard to recruit enough intrigued actors to take part, although there was a last minute shout out as one went down with laryngitis.

 

In the morning the actors were given sealed envelopes containing the text and the “Artist” was revealed. After a day of reading and devising the play was presented that evening.

 

The performance was recorded and can be seen here:   https://vimeo.com/183225484

 

Check Aleksandra’s website for more details of Antarctica: A Play and all her other works: https://aleksandramir.info

 

 

Tim McGill

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Read more on Tim's blog When Antarctica came to Dartington