Instructions for Forgetting
Instructions for Forgetting (2001) is a theatre production by the British company Forced Entertainment. It was written and performed by Tim Etchells in collaboration with Hugo Glendinning (video) and Richard Lowdon (design).
Instructions for Forgetting was commissioned by Wiener Festwochen 2001 (Vienna, Austria).
Information
(Objekt ID 26108)| Object type | Production |
| Premiere | 2001 |
| Produced by | Forced Entertainment |
| In collaboration with | Performing Arts Network (of Norway) |
| Audience | Adults |
| Language | English |
| Keywords | Theatre |
| Running period | 2001 |
| Website | forced entertainment |
"I ask my friends to send stories and videotapes. For the stories I ask for things that are true. The topics can be anything. I ask for short reports on things that have happened in the world. For the tapes I say: 'Don't make me anything special - send what you have'.
Using home movies, letters and videotapes from friends alongside recordings of world events, Instructions for Forgetting explores video as an artefact, as a container of image and memory and as an occasion for speculation, storytelling, fiction, interpretation.
A solo performer (Tim Etchells) and a video operator (Richard Lowdon) sit at their tables in a space strewn with video monitors, VCRs, cables, untidy stacks of videotapes. The performer speaks, relaying stories, speculations, letters from friends in different parts of the world. Images are continuously rewound, narratives fast-forwarded, slivers of the past caught in freeze frame, fiction drawn out in an agony of slow motion."
The BIT Teatergarasjen program gave the following information, among other things, about the production:
"From 1984, Tim Etchells has been one of the driving forces within Forced Entertainment, the theatre collective that has developed into the foremost within its genre in Great Britain. Through theatre productions, site-specific performance art, digital media, workshops and more, the company examines concepts and ideas regarding identity, language and theatricality. Love, memories and history.
Instructions for Forgetting is Tim Etchells' first solo work, based on home videos, interviews and letters from friends with something as simple as a little story to tell. As a theatre worker and writer, Etchells always sees the potential of the trivial text, the differently charged text fragments which together make up the foundation for the fantastic."
SOURCES:
BIT Teatergarasjen, spring program 2002.
Forced Entertainment, forcedentertainment.com, 06.10.2016, http://www.forcedentertainment.com/project/instructions-for-forgetting/
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Tim Etchells | – Text |
| Hugo Glendinning | – Video/Film |
| Richard Lowdon | – Sound design |
| Tim Etchells | – Performer |
| February 16, 2002 – BIT Teatergarasjen | Show |
| February 15, 2002 – BIT Teatergarasjen | Show |
| 2001 | Worldwide premiere |