Canadian
theatre 
Image
Gallery That the sun sucks up
Jacquelyn Brioux
BUMF HERE
Artist's Statement:
Caliban is often associated with savagery, rejection, punishment, and desire. I saw a potential to associate these emotions with a contemporary humanity that struggles with the economic, social, cultural, sexual, and psychological pressures of conformity, convention, and stereotype. In the music I've composed, Caliban’s honesty and guilt-inspiring presence are reflected through the melodic undertones battling it out with the raw frequencies and sporadic tribal drum beats. The lines “all the infections that the sun sucks up” and “after bite me … do hiss me into madness,” were of particular influence, as I thought they conveyed the embittered response of Caliban: A man who has been subjected to the hand of power and control and thus responds in an irrational manner of self-pity and disgust.
The piece was composed of a percussion line that was made from a recording I had of a drum circle I participated in with a few of my friends. There was a moment where we broke into spouts of animalistic noises, and I thought these would be fairly fitting. I decided upon using the hand drum (djembe) timbre to aid in associating Caliban with the tribal. The feedback line was intended to irritate the listener, causing feelings of anxiety––much like the anxiety that the presence of Caliban causes for modern audiences. The searing guitar lines, with their dense distortion and circular effect, were intended to tunnel into the listener’s mental zone, making him/her feel musically surrounded––much like being on an island. The vocals were a recording of me speaking, whispering, growling, and singing the lines from Caliban’s monologue before Trinculo and Stephano stumble upon him (see below). The recording of the rain was significant to the storm in the beginning of the play, adding to the dark mood, illustrating the natural, and highlighting the threat of savagery from the world outside. The song’s overall timbre was structured to create an eerie feeling, a looming presence of conflicted and dominating power, and an internalized state of tension and release. Ultimately, the sonic interpretation/adaptation of the scene was intended to represent the internalized feelings that Caliban’s presence in the play provokes in the audience.
Audio Clip:
Jacquelyn Brioux, 2005
All the infections that the sun sucks up
From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him
By inch-meal a disease! His spirits hear me,
And yet I needs must curse. But they'll nor pinch,
Fright me with urchin-shows, pitch me i' the mire,
Nor lead me, like a firebrand, in the dark
Out of my way, unless he bid 'em; but
For every trifle are they set upon me:
Sometime like apes that mow and chatter at me,
And after bite me; then like hedge-hogs which
Lie tumbling in my bare-foot way, and mount
Their pricks at my foot-fall; sometime am I
All wound with adders, who with cloven tongues
Do hiss me into madness
-- Caliban (Act II, Scene II);The Tempest
For more information about Jacquelyn Brioux'’s music, including audio clips and photography, visit www.jacquelynbrioux.com.
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Fischlin, Daniel. Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project. University of Guelph. 2004.
