After every performance, the audience exits into a space where a couple of Guestbooks are laid out. Some people write in them; some don’t. Some send emails which are then taped into the books.
- Duende – maximum expression, minimum gesture. Hillar, you're becoming a toreador. (John Delacourt)
- Hillar … your sense of beauty. Your attention to detail. The talent of performers and crew – I appreciated all. But what makes your work SO unique to me is how you embrace time. Time is never feared by you – rather it is used to evoke the unutterable. (Martti)
- Brittle, nostalgic, cruel, and lost. Oh, thank you. (Don McKellar)
- Very calming for me. (Philip)
- Amazing!! Every moment had me interested. I have never really experienced like this before. (T. McCarthy)
- A masterpiece? I think so … I'll have to see it more often – so fine. (Ed Fielding)
- OK – it's official – yes, a masterpiece. Is there a category of symphonie du chambre? Anyway yes, symphony in its polymorphic, polyphonic depth and violence, a perfection of DNA. … the perfection of finesse in every detail yielding the beyond of unimagined worlds of perfection leaping to life. (Ed Fielding)
- A lovely shard, a beautiful remnant. (Deanne Taylor)
- It was amazing to be in one place and suddenly being transported to another place and places that my mind recalls. (Ana Francisca de la Mora)
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Dear Hillar, I am writing to you to explain my objection to some of the techniques you use in presenting your dramas.
I have been planning to write this letter for some time; what happened the other night when I came with the intention of experiencing REMNANTS has prompted me to finally do it.
Of course, I have experienced various of the DNA audience control techniques at each of the DNA shows I have attended. (The first DNA performance I saw was HAMLET, and I think I've seen most of the ones since, though I've missed a few.) The entrance of audience members into the performance space is controlled; ususally they are allowed in in groups – groups which are arranged by a DNA person (in which process people who with friends are often separated from their friends); the same DNA doorperson usually announces a set of rules to be followed by audience members.
Recently the audience control techniques have extended to regulating the departure of audience members from the performance space. This happened at one of the Artaud shows which I attended. In that case you yourself tapped me on the shoulder to indicate I had to leave; I obeyed.
Also, of course, the DNA representative(s) controlling access to the space are part of the performance, delivering their instructions in a deliberate manner; that is, they do not behave as box office / front of house personnel normally behave.
Hillar, I have become – over the years – increasingly annoyed by these audience control techniques. My objections are as follows:
- These techniques do not enhance the drama that is sandwiched in between the entry and exit. The drama can and must stand on its own, and has nothing to do with how the audience enters or exits the space.
- The techniques may distract audience members from the performance by frightening them, putting them off guard, or – generally – causing them anxiety. Obviously anything that reduces audience members' ability to concentrate on the performance itself is to be avoided.
- The techniques violate the implicit contract between theatre and audience. That contract includes, among other things the following provisions:
- The audience shall be treated in a courteous manner, and not in an arbitrary manner.
- The audience shall be informed where the performance will take place, and shall have a reasonable amount of time to enter the performance space.
- Audience members shall enter the performance space with whomever they choose to associate with.
- Audience members shall be permitted to remain in the space until the end of the performance, and to leave in their own – reasonable – time.
- Audience members shall not be touched by performers without their permission.
When I decided to attend REMNANTS, I hoped that these techniques would not be used. When I discovered that various of the techniques were being used, I decided that I could not cooperate with their use. As I could not cooperate, I had to leave.
Hillar, please understand my objections as outlined above have nothing to do with my very high regard for the work of DNA. Your HAMLET still ranks as the one theatre experience whoch most opened my mind to the possibilities of theare. It was exquisite, and still reverberates in my imagination.
And you are arguably the most influential Toronto theatre artist of the past fifteen years. I have seen the evidence everywhere, in the work of so many groups who have contributed to Toronto theatre.
The style of performance which you present in the DNA shows has influenced me enormously, and I often think of your style when I am trying to achieve particular effects in my own plays.
Yours respectfully,
John Moore
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- Riveting performance! (Borys)
- I loved the set, shattered glass, laser, and beautiful ballerina. (Liz)
- Angie [the ballerina], I could watch you without eating, sleeping or drinking. (Heljo)
- Je me trouve sans mots pour exprimer la quietude et la tranquilité que se trouve en moi. Merci. (Emilie)
- Maybe the shards and the perfection of spheres – the control of the spirit and the mind … was most moving … Such interesting and beautiful and alarming parallels between outside and inside. (Pia)
- Beautiful, elegant, touching, deep. (Mark)
- My second viewing + pretty darn quiet in the room here afterwards. (Sigrid Johnson)
- Thank you for the exquisite REMNANTS. With such beautiful fragments, who requires the finite “whole”? (A. M.)
- An amazing and unique experience. Beautiful beyond words! (Emma Ruby-Sachs)
- Love, loss, farewells – the spirit of life … I felt such sorrow but also inspiration.
- Mixed emotions; eerie, beautiful, sexy, uncomforting, piercing and sensual. Thank you for the simultaneous flood of thoughts and feelings that this piece evoked inside of my soul. (Sarah)
- It was like a painting that moved!
- This was a mind-blowing experience. Visually rich and stimulating. It's very hard to find the exact words to describe what I just experienced. (Lara)
- Thank you. Sharp. A Degas inside a Magritte.
- My first time seeing a DNA performance. I liked the danger of a sheer dress and Fire in one small room. (David Hyde)
- Beauty, tension, warmth and violence – the four horsemen of DNA?