Tao of Glass, co-commissioned by Hong Kong’s New Vision Arts Festival from composer Philip Glass and performer-director Phelim McDermott, is difficult to define.
Part live drama, part concert and part puppet show, the work – which has had its delayed Hong Kong premiere four years after it was first performed in Manchester in the UK – also resembles a talk show in format.
At its most basic level, Tao of Glass is about McDermott’s love of theatre and his obsession with Glass, the minimalist guru who composed 10 pieces for the two-and-a-half-hour show.
After the house lights dimmed, a “latecomer” made his way down the aisle and had a great deal of trouble finding his seat. It was not until the middle-aged man went up on stage that the audience realised this was McDermott. He proceeded to share with theatregoers how he went from being a young theatre enthusiast to an Olivier Award-winning director, and his abiding love of Glass’ music.
He was an engaging storyteller, using mime and the help of three puppeteers-cum-actors to bring key moments to life, and he delighted the audience with jokes made at the composer’s expense – how he used to drive his parents crazy by playing Glass’ music on repeat, and how he once bored to sleep Glass, “the man who has put so many to sleep in concert halls” with his minimalist music.
The presentation may have been lighthearted in tone but there was a serious message at the heart of it about the importance of accepting failure, heartbreak and death as part of a Taoist way of life.
McDermott selected three failures to talk about in the first half: how he couldn’t make it to his first theatre show because overexcitement left him with a stomach ache; how he and Glass couldn’t complete a joint project with illustrator Maurice Sendak because of the latter’s untimely death; and how Glass fell ill at the last minute ahead of a joint workshop in New York.
Before the intermission, we were left with the image of McDermott sitting at the centre of the stage in despair.
And then the Tao kicked in. As McDermott explained in the second half, the show was born out of the loss and emptiness left by Sendak’s death.
3 highlights from Hong Kong’s New Vision Arts Festival you won’t want to miss
3 highlights from Hong Kong’s New Vision Arts Festival you won’t want to miss
Invoking the Taoist belief that everything evolves naturally from nothing, according to “the way”, he said he told Glass that he would like to carry on with the project with just the two of them, even without a clear idea of how it would end up.
McDermott symbolised this revelation by attaching sheets from musical scores, representing the presence of Glass, to his body, then pulling them off as if he were a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis.
Another philosophical concept McDermott introduced is psychologist Arnold Mindell’s idea of “deep democracy” – the idea that we perceive reality on different levels: consensus reality, dreamland and sentient essence.
He showed on a revolving platform in the centre of the stage an exercise he once did with Glass to reach the deepest level, sentient essence, by lying down as if in a coma. As his body spun around to the music of Glass it became clear that, for McDermott, creativity springs from submitting oneself to the ceaseless cycle that is the Tao.
It was a spiritual moment in keeping with the minimalism of the music, and a logical progression in the show’s theme.
The music, performed by four musicians led by the percussionist Chris Vatalaro, matched perfectly what happened on stage. The minimalist puppetry was memorable, especially the way in which the three puppeteers instantly conjured the characters in McDermott’s narrative using just a few pieces of paper.
Tao of Glass is slow-paced, and some of its long philosophical musings hard to digest, if not pedantic. It is reminiscent of a one-man show called Sing Brother Sing by Chinese bass-baritone Tian Haojiang, performed in Hong Kong in 2013. Both are autobiographical in nature, and powerful, moving, love letters to the theatre and to creativity.
“Tao of Glass”, New Vision Arts Festival, Hong Kong City Hall Theatre. Reviewed: October 26.