Waiting for Sunrise, in silence, from sunset at 5:04 pm on Friday to sunrise at 7:48 am on Saturday - fourteen hours and forty-four minutes.
Shannon Cochrane and Jess Dobkin of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, asked me to create a performance for Stage 9 Apotheosis/Journey to the Inmost Cave, for their Monomyths Series, produced by FADO Performance Art Centre. This cycle of 14 performances was based on Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which suggests that all myths have a common pattern. However, the MONOMYTHS perception of the universal journey dispels the notion of the lone patriarchal figure on a conquest to vanquish his demons – in consideration of a feminist revisioning of a world of community, collectivity, and collaboration.
I chose to design a performance in which both I and the audience were engaged in the same action. I thought the ‘inmost cave’ might be one’s own mind, and that the most intense and often darkest period of reflection is during the deep hours of the night. Beginning at sunset at 5:04 pm, we sat together in silence contemplating our lives, waiting for sunrise, which arrived at 7:48 am, after fourteen hours and forty-four minutes.
The Art Hut, a stand-alone building, had floor-to-ceiling windows facing sunrise. We illuminated the upper walls and ceiling dimly, the light subtly shifting like firelight. The sound of water moving underground was subliminal. Chairs were available, and mats with cushions along the walls. A counter had a kettle for hot tea. In the middle of the room was a large round table, covered in black.
I lit a candle in the center of the table at sunset, extinguishing it at sunrise. Two small spherical rocks were near the candle. Also on the table was a bowl containing printed cards of questions for the audience.
The audience could arrive and leave at any time.
Instructions for the event were posted at the entrance.
we are waiting for sunrise
in silence
please join us
Find a place to sit.
In the bowl on the table are cards with suggestions of topics to consider
on your journey to the inmost cave.
What have you accomplished?
What have you forgotten?
What do you really know?
What do you want to forget?
What have you lost?
What will you leave behind?
What remains always?
What do you choose not to see?
What do you fear?
What is changing?
How will you die?
What is emptiness?
What is time?
What is silence?
What is death?
What is darkness?
What is stillness?
What is eternity?
