'Hinterland' plays with sound and soul'

SACRAMENTO PRESS
by Ian Moore, published on December 3, 2010 at 4:59PM


Tucked away in the University of California, Davis, campus Wednesday night was the first of four days showing the play, “Hinterland.”


“Hinterland” is a two-part, two-hour play written, directed and adapted for the stage by artist-in-residence Lucy Gough.

A British playwright, Gough writes for the BBC drama “Doctors” as well as many other projects. Her artist-in-residence project, “Hinterland,” opened with the seats partly filled, largely with students.

“Hinterland” is a radio-theater drama melded from two separate pieces to explore one concept – the soul. Opening with the piece, “Mapping the Soul,” it ran for 50 minutes until intermission. “Mapping the soul” is a strange blend of surrealism and realism.

In the performance, Gough noted, “There are so many edges being blurred, and I love edges, hence the title ‘Hinterland.’ ”

In “Mapping the soul,” an atypical one-act, you see those lines blurred. She matches radio soundscapes and flamboyant dialogue with the simple stage sets of theater, as well as the song and dance of the soul.

“I thought it would be interesting to find a way to pull this radio play and stage play together and to create a new drama out of them,” Gough said.

“Mapping the soul” follows a 19th-century anatomist in search of the physicality of the soul by dissection of the brain and heart. He finds nothing.

It bounces back and forth with another plotline, juxtaposed, yet strangely perpendicular: The dialogue of a genome scientist lost in time and space, between life and death, declaring there is no soul, but eventually finding that the soul, element-less, exists as a sort of blind faith.

What is unique is not just the conception, but also the soundscape creation. The sound is live, as if on the air, to match the dialogue, creating the imagery that only storytelling radio can deliver.

“When the live audience witnesses the sound of the brain dissection being created by something like a cabbage being sawn up,” Gough said, “what does this do to their imaginations?”

Yes, sawn-up cabbages, water splashing in a bowl, ripped-apart pumpkins and more, the soundtrack is not automated or pre-recorded. It is as much a discourse, a script; as much vulnerable and alive as the actors. It’s very Beckett-esque, a tale exploring the soul and unknown, lacking in the absurd factor but fully delving into the sublime of the individual.

The second half continued with the namesake play, “Hinterland.” Its sound becomes more modern with dialogue sung hip-hop style backed by vocal break beats and an electric guitar. It’s a little more confusing, a little more lost as it plays with a scriptural and magic realism setting with poets, wolves and Adam and Eve.

After the performance, there was a brief discussion of the soul. There were varying perspectives between the cast and spectators speaking of its existence or its shape. In all, the play presented what was attempting to be clarified or understood afterward: The soul may be matter-less, existing in the dark on the edge of the unknown.

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