ROBERT WILSON

“There is a tension between space and time, one cannot exist without the other. To me time is a vertical line. It starts from the heavens and goes right to the center of the earth. And space is horizontal. There is always that cross between time and space….the line must always continue, it must never start, never stop, never end.”
Robert Wilson

In creating Wings on Rock, Robert Wilson began with the story of THE LITTLE PRINCE by Antoine de Saint Euxpéry, and a Native American myth about a young boy seeking for his father. He took these fables of a young boy exploring the strange and wonderful world around him, and set it in a very simple, classical space. The main space of the drama, the boy’s world, is a sheer white box created of fabric, hung in the center of whatever theatre or playing space the show is to be performed in. No attempt is made to mask the space around it.

The two characters of the piece are the Boy, who never leaves this box, and the Mother/Girl, who is at home in the world outside and enters and exits from his space at will. The classic myth of the young boy’s growing understanding of the world around him, and of himself, is told playfully, with no words.

The music of Pascal Comelade and costumes of Kenzo Takada add to the dreamy, and at the same time carnival-like atmosphere of the piece. An elaborate soundscape and lighting that at times merges the worlds within and without the box, and at other times divides them as completely as would a wall, are the other elements used by Mr. Wilson to retell these classic myths in his own way.

PRODUCTION DATES
Fano, Italy (avant-premiere), Teatro della Fortuna, 21 – 23 April 1998
Paris, France, Festival de Saint-Denis
15 – 20 June 1998
Barcelona, Spain, Festival Internacional de Teatre
6 – 10 October 1998
Bologna, Italy, Teatro Duse
15 – 18 October 1998
Trieste, Italy, Teatro Politeama Rossetti, 21 – 25 October 1998