72 Days is the PhD performance of Estonian Music and Theatre Academy doctoral students Tiit Ojasoo and Giacomo Veronesi, directed by Ene-Liis Semper and Tiit Ojasoo with body dramaturgy overseen by Giacomo Veronesi. The cast consists of Liisa Saaremäel, Keithy Kuuspu, Rea Lest and drama school students Alice Siil, Astra Irene Susi, Emili Rohumaa, Hanna Jaanovits, Hele Palumaa, Kristin Prits, Kristina Preimann, Lauren Grinberg. It premiered on February 20, 2022 in the black box of the Estonian Music and Theatre Academy.
As we step into the blackbox, the performance is already happening: there is a pile of intertwining young female bodies, softly swimming through one-another, almost completely blending into each other at times. Bodies become one tender body of water. The soundscape is that of ambient sounds with races of a calm sea, accompanied by soft lighting and a sense of eternity that is highlighted by the performer’s fluid and patient movement language. It is a highly introverted moment, the presence of the audience is barely acknowledged and seems somewhat unimportant; is this them telling me that they are not here simply for my entertainment?
The scene is quickly and undramatically resolved when the performers disentangle themselves in a matter-of-fact way and move to the sides of the stage to change clothes and prepare for what comes next: A kaleidoscopic journey in the countless of lives that are being and have been lived in the world.
Entangled with the story of american journalist Nellie Bly, who in 1889 completed a journey around the world in only 72 days, while all the while describing all she sees in her journey, 72 Days has taken upon the task of breathing life into a collection of photographs that is touching a wide range of humanity (from studio 54 to some of the earliest photographs in history). And here lies the first paradox: A photograph always belongs to an-other space/time. It is the distillation of a moment that no longer exists therefore, there always seems to be a void between picture and spectator, between the time and space the photo was made and the time and space we encounter it. On the other hand, live performance is a medium that separates itself from other artforms due to its “presentness”; performance always takes place in the here and now. So how do the borders of these two worlds (photography and performance) manage to become so gracefully porous?
It is almost impossible to speak about 72 Days without talking about presence. In fact, it is the refreshing and masterful choreography of presence that allows for the experience of this spectacular merging of photography and performance. Right after the dissolution of the first image, the performers go on to create tableau-vivant after tableau-vivant, conjuring poses and compositions that feel deeply familiar: they are recreating those old photographs, from the time when one would have to pose for several minutes in order for their picture to be taken. What is striking about this scene, besides the precision with which the bodies are positioned, is the way their presence is turned into absence: although we are undoubtedly in the same room and at times, the performers establish immediate eye-contact with the audience, there is a strong sense that there is some sort of invisible wall between their eyes and mine. It is as if the time that is separating the pose and the photograph, the photograph and the witness has materialized into distance in proximity. In fact, throughout the entire performance there are shifts in the quality of the presence: one moment you make a genuine connection and the next you’re worlds apart.
The image that haunted me most of all was that of seven of the performers, happily wiping the floor with a cloth and a big shiny smile. This image is held for a very long time and remains on the stage while four of the performers (who until now had been sitting on the side of the stage watching the tableaux-vivants come to life), enter the stage and concur it with an unquestionable female force. The juxtaposition of the two energies on stage is very strong and it becomes even stronger as the difficulty of maintaining a smile for that long becomes apparent though small involuntary twitches, the sensation of which mysteriously finds its way in my own body as I watch. I feel liberated, constrained, empowered, naked and safe all at once.
Soon enough, the stage that was once occupied by a sea of bodies is now covered with a sea of things: clothes, shoes, accessories, empty bottles, guns, toys…the modern history of humanity in objects tossed on the floor of the blackbox. The performers are browsing through the items, picking and choosing, constructing a “look” and then inhabiting its image only to then peel it off them and strategically place the items on a big shelf that inhabits the back of the space, as if it is an attempt to somehow taxonomize this journey. The pace is fast and irregular which, along with the constant and intense ambient soundscape distorts our sense of time. Meanwhile, images appear, disappear, coexist, converse or ignore one another and the task of composing any kind of meaning out of these chance encounters is assigned to the audience: the play is what I make of it. As audience, we are trained to search for connections, we crave for meaning, for the gratification of understanding the big picture or narrative. But in the case of this performance, the meaning is constructed individually within each one of us watching. Depending on which images happen to meet my eyes and resonate and which connections I manage to construct, the story is different.
Kaja Kann describes 72 Days as a “two-hour trip where nothing happens.”. Indeed it feels like a journey. A journey through everything, everywhere, all at once, tinged with the sensitivity and fierceness of the eleven female performers. By the time the performance finishes everything (including the performers) is neatly organized on the big shelf at the back.
Sources:
Performance Information: https://eamt.ee/semperi-ojasoo-veronesi-72-paeva/
Video Documentation of Performance: https://vimeo.com/742143221
72 Days performance review article on Sirp: https://sirp.ee/s1-artiklid/teater/stardipositsioon-loob-reisikirja/
Photos of the performance made by Tiit Ojasoo
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