No to transformations and magic and make believe". (And that's just for starters). But inevitably pieces by Ms. Rainer, 82, and Mr. Paxton, 78, have become spectacle, as their work acquires the patina of historical importance, and their ideas continue to influence choreographers several generations down the line.
This kind of spectacle might work onstage, where numb enervation can sometimes be mistaken for exhilaration, but this screen version, for all its wailing emotionalism and elaborate production design, lacks both authentic romance and the thrill of memorable spectacle.
"Knee 1" is the title of the opening section of "Einstein on the Beach," Philip Glass and Robert Wilson's 1976 operatic spectacle, a work that until last week at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where it has returned after 20 years, I had known exclusively through recordings.
It was a terrible, terrible time in many ways, but people survived and elements of their culture survived". One exhibit, a massive wood and metal door from the San Gabriel Mission, circa 1805, illustrates how ceremony and spectacle could work as a tool of both intimidation and education, Gudis said.
What made the spectacle work was the ingenuity and the attention to detail with which it was rendered.
But what makes the spectacle work is the combination of a medium-paced court with a fast ball and fast athletes.
Maybe turning a story about mental illness into upbeat spectacle shouldn't work, but it does.
Although the video was not yet authenticated, news outlets were already comparing the grisly spectacle to the work of Jihadi John.
Gibson distances the dialogue from us, as if Jesus' famous words were only incidental and the visual spectacle — Gibson's work as a director — were the real point.
The bare dialogue and stage directions give no sense of the unsettling and innovative spectacle that the work becomes in the theatre.
