MIND THE GAP
At the ponds.
Two acquaintances.
Simply just strangers.
They sit.
They chat.
They part.
And as they do it again and again – something irreversibly changes…
Photography credit: Paulius Olšauskas
Milda’s responsibilities in the project: author, director, performer, researcher.
MIND THE GAP is a bi-lingual play about encounters – between two strangers, between two stories, between two languages and disciplines. It has been inspired by the story of a “seven second memory” owner – a former musicologist and keyboardist who suffers from chronic retrograde amnesia Clive Wearing. This curious case of a man, who, due to his illness, is forever stuck in the present moment, where he cannot recall what his life was like a few seconds ago, somehow never fails to remember two things about his life: his love for music and his wife. Taking this real-life story as a source of inspiration, this performance questions the workings of the human mind, memory and imagination, and becomes an example of what its author, director and researcher Milda Al-Slamah calls the Theatre of Consciousness – the subject of her doctoral research.
Devised with the help of a pianist and improvisation researcher Jaak Sikk (PhD), it has been first presented as a work in progress at the Copenhagen International School of Performing Arts (CISPA) in October 2020 where actors Daniel Ash and Sylwia Skonieczka performed it after a series of mental rehearsals without ever rehearsing it live. As of 2023 this performance has evolved into an experimental theatre piece performed by the author-director Milda Al-Slamah herself with a different musician who would participate in the piece without prior preparation, simply following live-fed directions provided on the night. Premiered as a theatrical show: 28 June 2023 at Vileišio 18 Art Spaces, Vilnius, Lithuania featuring Jaak Sikk as guest musician.
