| name | value |
| location | Coventry |
| date | 2024-04-30 |
| dateFormat | Do MMMM YYYY |
| fontFamily | athelas |
(Instagram ver) Earlier this year I read I Did Not Bid Farewell by Han Kang (Vegetarian, Human Acts). It “depicts the tragedy of a 1948 civilian massacre on South Korea’s southern island of Jeju from the perspective of three women.”
Han Kang’s writing is so refrained yet so impactful. The vivid imageries from that book weigh so heavily and the pain feels so real that I couldn’t even cry. For the past months that book has been haunting me nonstop and the emotions have been so strong yet I couldn’t find a way to let it out.
The narrator in REWIND (Ephemeral Ensemble) said, “This is not the first time we hear about these terrible acts; looking around us, it won’t be the last time.”
That moment I found it, a way and space to vent it all out, my tears came down, and never stopped until a while after I got out of the Arts Centre.
This piece is amazing in many ways, artistically of politically, it shines in whichever category you want to put it. The music is incredible and holds the energy throughout. The set is minimal but effective, doesn’t waste a single detail. The puppetry is ever so finely and respectfully used to present people not on the stage. The movement, the language and the break-free from language! And yes it is political, true story based, raw and truthful, yet it is also lively. As the creative team put it, “it is both life and death. We want it to be joyful, […] the music and dance are what keep people going.”
“A people with memory is democracy forever.”
“There is no liberty without dignity. There is no humanity without humanity. There is no liberty without humanity”
It’s not ten thousand people had suffered, it’s a person suffered, and it happened gen thousand times. There’s no humanity without each individual. I’m grateful that people are telling these individual stories. Lest we forget.
（微信朋友圈版） 今晚去看了ephemeral ensemble的REWIND。雖然桐早就警告過我它很好哭，但我沒想到我會哭得這麼慘。下場上完廁所照鏡子發現眼睛都腫了。
年初的時候看了韓江的《永不告別》，那本書裡面的畫面一直在我腦子裡揮之不去，不知道哪個時刻就蹦出來讓我難過一下。但韓江是韓江，她的文筆一如既往的冷，整個故事就是因寒冷而開啟，小說的高潮也是主人公在暴風雪裡冷到昏迷，於是有一種強大的壓力，讓激烈的情緒沒有辦法釋放出來。壓抑我至今。
但這個作品卻是完全相反的。整場表演用很簡約但精巧的舞台設計，和情緒及其飽滿的音樂，幾乎是鼓勵著觀眾乘著燈光和音樂把情緒通通釋放出來。
從講述者說「這不是我們第一次聽到這些暴行；看看我們身邊，這也不會是最後一次」我就開始忍不住哭了。
作品毫不吝嗇地展示生之喜悅，也毫不忌諱地展示生之悲苦而死亦悲苦。感染力太強了以至於我不斷地在腦內做筆記它舞台設計和細節設計的巧妙構思，以此讓自己分一點神，不然我怕我嚎出來。
主創說他們兩次去到南美表演，一開始非常緊張，生怕自己說不好這個故事，甚至覺得自己生活在英國是不是不配代表他們的聲音來講述這個故事。但是觀眾們給了很好的反饋，感謝他們的表演，記住並講述這些故事，並且開始分享更多自己的故事。據說有一場演後談比演出本身時間還長。
結束之後主創感謝觀眾之後說的第一句話是，「希望它引起了你們一些共鳴」。在問卷裡的三個問題裡第一條也是問觀眾在哪方面獲得了怎樣的共鳴。
世界各地，同樣的暴行，同樣的壓迫，同樣的痛苦，每時每刻都在發生。我覺得很聰明也很有效的一點是這個作品現在的呈現是幾乎沒有台詞的。這一點印證了香港tsw劇場的口號「if you want to be free, be free from language first」。正因為沒有文字，正因為把具體的地點人物模糊了，既沒有不尊重原本的人物事件，又能讓人自由地聯想自己身邊的經歷。共振力自然就強，非常強。