Comments for The History of Glass | Bright Edge at http://www.australianstage.com.au , comment 1 to 1 out of 1 comments http://www.australianstage.com.au Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:24:35 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.australianstage.com.au/reviews/perth/the-history-of-glass--bright-edge-2022.html#comment-667 Now that the show is done and dusted, I think a few comments on the review might be useful. I have no idea who the reviewer is or what her background is, but I find it interesting that a person who sets themselves up as a reviewer can fail to notice that the show was about the city it was written and performed in. I also have no idea why she expected a metaphorical question to be answered literally. My biggest worry in writing the show was that I was going to write it so obviously that I would be rubbing the audiences\' noses in it. Even half-way through the season, I was still worried that we were lecturing the audience about what we were doing. Apparently the constant repetition by all three performers of, \'I don\'t believe it,\' is not a clue about metaphor. It\'s also interesting that she is excited about the innovation of the format, when it was a direct copy of the show to which it was a sequel. When we presented \'Unawares\' for Artrage 2000 and then again at the Fringe 2001, we combined a cycle of poems about Perth with live manipulated soundscapes, projected live drawing and slides. In \'Unawares\' I did the live drawing while performing the poetry; in \'The History of Glass\' Stuart Reid did the drawing. Other than that, our \'innovative\' format was one we used eight years ago. I had used a similar format in 1998 when I directed Garrick Tippett\'s \'Reinventing Silence\', though that didn\'t have live drawing: just projections of abstract paintings combined with a cycle of poems. (And that was Garrick Tippett\'s idea, not mine.) I haven\'t bothered looking it up, but I would be astonished if I were to discover that Unawares was the first show ever to combine live drawing, poetry and soundscapes. People have been putting different bits of art together since Adam was a boy. We have prettier tools now, but I don\'t think I\'m doing anything new. Maybe I am. The other comment I have to make is that I find it interesting that the only people who consistently don\'t understand what I\'m saying, are reviewers. Let me be clear: this is the opposite of the complaint of populist artists who complain that reviewers are snobs. Reviewers have frequently complained that they couldn\'t see what my shows were about. Audiences at THOG hung around for up to an hour after the show to talk to us about what they thought we had done. This is a common experience for me. I hope this is of some use to Simmone, or anyone else. - Mar Bucknell Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:14:06 +0100