In Utrecht the ‘choreography’ of End on Mouth was the same as in Istanbul, where the work was performed for the first time at Platform Garanti in 2004. Two big wooden podia are found in the space, one on the floor, one leaning against the wall. With collective force, the lying podium was for several moments lifted up and held at eye level by a group of carriers that emerged from the public watching the performance in the space. One space’s architectural column pierced the podium and functioned as an ‘anchor’.

Davids reverses the idea of a podium as a tool for ‘being on stage’: instead of letting them perform on the podium, Davids directs the 3 actors and the 3 musicians inside the podium. From this confined position they are expected to perform their text and music. Hidden like this, their live presence manifests itself in the vocal capacity of the body. The unity between voice and body is interrupted, the desire to identify sound visually is frustrated.

The text of the play which the actors express and on which the music is based, is about the voice: the voice as the conduit for human expression and manifestation. But Davids contends that in the same act we are expressing ourselves, we also disappear. “You see, when we talk, we are breathing out; expression has to do with the physical action of emptying ourselves. Every time we talk, we die a bit.”

End on Mouth
Concept: Yael Davids
Execution: André van Bergen and Michiel Kluiters
Actors: Joep van der Geest, Lotte Proot, Martijn van der Veen
Musicians: Michele Bagaglio (composition, guitar and voice), Carlos Vaquero Patricio (flute), Sonja Gruys (voice)
With special thanks to: All carriers, Marijn van der Jagt, Astrid Schumacher, Gallery Akinci (Amsterdam)