IF YOU WILL FORGIVE ME: JOHN CAGES WATER WALK, REPETITIONS

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“And we make, of course, failures, and we make mistakes, but we sometimes get glimpses of what we might do next.” - John Cage

"He is probably the most controversial figure in the musical world today, and when you hear his performance, if you will forgive me, you will understand why." - Garry Moore, host of "I've Got A Secret"

By 1960, most American households had a television. This was the era that saw televised media tackle serious social and political issues and simultaneously question what the American public would consider entertainment. The question of what to reveal and what to keep secret prevailed in both the news-hour and the prime-time variety show. In February 1960, John Cage performed Water Walk on the celebrity guessing-game show I’ve Got a Secret with an obstacle course of objects from a bathtub to a Campari soda.

If You Will Forgive Me is a devised theatre work created by Annie Saunders and Christopher Rountree, based on Cage's 1960 appearance on live television. Our set recreates his set for Water Walk, and the music (Rountree, at first as Cage and increasingly as himself 'plays' an ice bucket, a mechanical fish, and 20 other objects) repeats over and over. The music is punctuated by a 'reset' in which performers as a TV crew reset for the next take. We hear recorded audio of Cage and of Rountree, commenting on the multifaceted nature of repetition (its benefits, its necessity, its tedium, its compulsion).

The tape of Cage’s TV appearance, which is recreated and gradually abstracted here, offers an opportunity to examine the hypnotically repetitive nature of rehearsal and re-take, the performativity of the live studio audience, and the necessity and difficulty of empathy between performer and audience.

Concept and direction: Annie Saunders
Performance, original writing, devising and concept development: Christopher Rountree
Additional performance and devising: Jacqueline Zhou, Madeline Barasch, Alexander Demers, Mark Skeens, Elvy Yost
Live sound mixing: David Pino, Brett Ulery
Sound design and boom operator: Jackie Zhou
Scenic design: Nina Caussa
Lighting design: Chu-Hsuan Chang
Costume design: Kate Fry

Shot by Sara Nesson
Editing: Dan Carr

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