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You Can’t Be Susurrus
ArtsEmerson Presents David Leddy’s Susurrus
A play without actors or a stage seems to break the qualifications of having a play at all. ArtsEmerson is taking that chance during its “The World on Stage” program, with David Leddy’s Susurrus which is literally a walk in the park. Based in Boston’s Public Garden, guests are provided with MP3 players and headphones, while they walk around listening to a piece that relates to sections of the park plotted on a map. “It is part radio play, part recital, part lesson in bird dissection, and part stroll in the park.”
You are essentially the audience; the headphones and map are your play- naturally transforming the Public Garden into a stage for your creativity to run free. The MP3 player feeds you a story about opera and the overall structure of the park, without behaving as a teaching lesson.
The map itself features art from Scottish artist, Laura Molloy. Both Molloy and Leddy create a personal map in relation to each park, including detailed elements such as benches which are included in the map’s borders and backgrounds.
Susurrus was inspired by Leddy’s connection to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it was the first play he had ever seen, and it has led to such an impact to this day. “If all the world is a stage,” as said by Shakespeare has truly resonated with Leddy, for he is known to work in unconventional settings: graveyards, glasshouses, train sheds, and the list continues. His plays feed off of its settings, where the audience sees the play in its natural, intended habitat. Thus in celebration of the classic Shakespeare masterpiece, ArtsEmerson will also be screening the 1935 version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Paramount Center, Saturday may 28 at 2 p.m. and Sunday the 29th at 7 p.m.
More ticket info here.