Inside the musings and tinkerings of physics world-changer Albert Einstein, we wander and play thanks to the uncanny simpatico of Robert Wilson, Phillip Glass and Lucinda Childs, who 35 years ago collaborated on an avant-garde performance piece that announced the postmodern domain and then some. Revived this year, the historic—and yes, occasionally dated—piece received a resounding performance at Zellerbach Auditorium last weekend, preceded by informal remarks by the creators themselves.
A kinetic patchwork of non-narrative non sequiturs, Einstein allows us to wander in and out of its magical space/time continuum almost at will. Staged without intermission for almost 4 1/2 hourss, Einstein encourages viewers to come and go as they please. But most sat glued to their seats, ears pinned back by the throbbing variations of Glass’ signature ragas and nonsense chants which utterly and seamlessly interpret Wilson’s poetic vision of sound, words, and temporal relativity along paths cleared by Duchamp, Merce Cunningham,Terry Riley, Brian Eno and then inherited in the 80s by David Byrne et al.
The hypnotic repetitions that are Glass’ signature are tantamount to a sonic vision quest, inducing the trance state required to slip into the place between sound and language. Into a domain more eloquent than silence.
It’s about the dilation of space, and the contraction of time—hence the opening Act features players (the dancer/performers) literally moving in different time zones, e.g. stationary, slow motion, hyper-quick.
The maddeningly open-ended creation is felt most deeply, I suspect, by the pilgrim who has patiently eased her way through the predictable performance expectations, eluding categorical judgments, and finally entered into a magic realist space/time that is beyond measurable anything.
I left Zellerbach with a case of existential jet lag, having been inside a space that doesn’t exist and a timezone simultaneous with the event horizon set in motion by Wilson, Glass & Childs. Whoosh!
“We were working at the edge of what we knew,” Wilson confessed in his pre-performance remarks. Einstein on the Beach still bears sparkling testimony to that daring credo. Top production values also reminded us of just how much can be done with sculptural lighting, a few odds and ends of props, utterly fearless performers, and incandescent soundwork.
To ask, “yes, but what is it about?” is to remain within earth’s gravitational pull.
