'Samadhi-lila': an ethereal, electronic journey

REBECCA ROSENTHAL/YH Lakshminanan, stop this crazy thing!

While descending the concrete stairwell into the dark, cocoon-like infrastructure of Morse's basement, the audience has no idea it is taking the first steps in an intensely sensual journey. Samadhi-lila, with words and music by Joshua Penman, MC '01, attempts to reveal a warmness at the heart of electronic music, combining it with brilliant performances from singers, live musicians, and dancers. The space of the theater, dense with metal-rimmed glass sheets festooned with willow branches, dripping ceiling pipes, and a mattressed floor for the audience, comes alive with Penman's music and the sweet, operatic voice of Allison Ewoldt, PC '03.

Penman, in flowing red garb, sits at the helm of the audience, bathed in the bluish light of his monitors and soundboards. This decision to place himself in between the audience and the stage proves to be one of the most compelling aspects of the piece. Immediately we share a connection with him, as if behind the curtain with the Wizard of Oz, experiencing together his personal fantasy. The performance's premise is somewhat of a reworking of Koyaanisqatsa—the concept of "life out of balance"—as a Man (Silas Kulkarni, SM '03) attempts to travel to Tibet, but instead steps into a dream world. He complains, "We're surrounded by technology...we think we're so smart," but it is exactly this technology that Samadhi-lila attempts to redeem. Penman's orchestration at the front of the stage is the first and most important act of identifying and showing the mechanics of the performance, for it is the electronic, mechanized nature of his composition with which Samadhi-lila is most concerned. Brecht would be proud.

The combination of live musicians, digital samplings, and electronic rhythms provides a rich aural experience, successfully complemented by lighting and set design that both serve important functions. The timbre of the oboe is joined with the flowing sounds of cellular phones and voices, the wail of dissonance and feedback, and the clear, beautiful sound of Ewoldt's voice. Orange-yellow light bursts complement the haze of two blue pillars, creating a total sensual environment in which the audience loses itself. Flashes of bright, white light and shifts in tempo are used at key moments to disarm us and make us question our role in the fantasy. Penman lets us hear the hiss of the fog machine, like James Joyce's "Paaah! Pfuiiiiii!" spoken by the Gas-jets of Dublin's Nighttown: a giving of voice to all things.

However, the cacophony of this spiritual dream world drowns out the attempts at meaningful dialogue and character interaction. In scenes that involve dialogue, the male lead's acting and delivery is particularly flat, highlighting the dialogue's already overly direct didacticism in a harsher, colder light. In contrast, the play shines brilliantly when two Luminous Beings—Kathleen Baillie, SM '04, and Allison Waggener, PC '02—dance in neon face paint to aboriginal drum-and-bass to release the spirit of the Man from within his drab business suit. He cowers at the foot of the audience, suggesting that his weaknesses and misplaced values are our own. This dance and interaction most successfully seduces our senses, and as the Luminous Beings finish dancing, out of breath, the audience breathes a little heavier.

Samadhi-lila presents music as technology with primitive roots. At these roots is the warmth with which Penman attempts to suffuse his play. In a world "out of balance," it is the sometimes simple, sometimes intricate layering of electronic sounds that accomplishes this. Using samples ranging from Glenn Gould performing Bach to Supreme Beats II and Dream Experience, the work seems as much influenced by Philip Glass and Arnold Schoenberg as Aphex Twin and Roni Size. Throughout the performance the audience sees Penman preparing and executing the shifts in sound, constantly reminding us how the music is both a personal and direct expression.

When an intensely sensual moment in the performance had passed, I felt somewhat manipulated and overly seduced, as if I needed to be liquored up on colors and sounds to be in touch with my spirit. This sentiment becomes especially true when the dialogue flounders trying to express the same things as the more sensual moments. It is unnecessary to hear the Man describe his dream as being "in full color, 3-D, incredibly beautiful," when we see it performed before our eyes. The only dialogue successfully delivered is in operatic form by Ewoldt, especially in an early scene when she sings the miscellany of flight schedules to the Man in beautiful melody. It would be interesting to see the play again without any of its spoken dialogue.

As Penman's music senior project, Samadhi-lila succeeds in expressing his skill and passion for music. It is an original and highly engaging experience that seeks to challenge what we value in our lives.

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