September 2007, Guinness Theatre, The Substation, 7-9 August 2008, Drama Centre Black Box, part of W!ld Rice's Singapore Theatre Festival together with Ho Tzu Nyen's House of Memory, 1 March 2009, University Cultural Centre, part of NUS Arts Festival: Arts & Environment, 16-22 August 2009, New Town Theatre, George Street, Edinburgh, part of the Singapore Showcase at Edinburgh Festival Fringe

"Paul Rae and Kaylene Tan - with pianist Shane Thio playing works by Toru Takemitsu - conjure up a truly profound, far-reaching reverie on how trees are rooted into the fabric of our imagination as well as into our eco-system." - The Herald, Scotland

“This is a show that eludes you, that charms you but does not seduce you, that stirs you and awakens you to a new level of consciousness while never quite binding you in the same spell, that speaks softly and is radical without being radical at all.” - Flying Inkpot (2007)

"At the core of Tree Duet is a meditative journey narrated by a wistful Paul Rae about the simple pleasures of living - remembering, contemplating, even something as basic as drinking - and what we stand to lose if we don't stop ourselves from being caught up in consumerism and convenience, and don't take the time to just breathe and reflect on our time in the world once in a while. Exquisitely crafted and sublime in its graceful simplicity and intricate beauty..." - The Flying Inkpot (2008)

A wry meditation on our continuing entanglement with trees. Interweaving stories from colonial history and the modern Asian city with simple effects and actions, spell#7 create a delicate theatrical ecology of ideas and images: eco-performance minus moralizing.

Read the programme note by C.J. Wan Ling Wee, The Expediency of History and the Management of Nature here.

Performance Credits

Written and performed by Paul Rae and Kaylene Tan, Additional text: Kaylene Tan, Pianist: Shane Thio, Lighting: Andy Lim, Photos: Yuen Chee Wai

Links

Rae, Paul. ‘Tree Duet’, in Ute Ritschel and Ina-Maria Gerverus (eds.),  Aesthetics and Anthropology: Performing Life - Performed Lives  (Berlin and London: LIT Verlag, 2009), pp. 8-25.

Davis, Lucy. ‘In the Company of Trees’, Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture 17 (Summer 2011): pp. 43-62.