Sight is the Sense That Dying People Tend to Lose First is structured as an accumulation of un-linked facts. The performance – a virtuoso piece of recall – tumbles from topic to topic to create a vast, failing iteration and explanation of the world.
Written and directed by Tim Etchells, leader of the celebrated experimental performance group Forced Entertainment, the text is performed by Jim Fletcher, an extraordinary New York-based actor and long-time performer with Richard Maxwell's New York City Players.
The complexities of the world, and the failure of words to explain or define them, is explored in this neat monologue penned by Tim Etchells of Forced Entertainment and performed by Jim Fletcher of Richard Maxwell's New York City Players. Unlike the world it conjures, it is absurdly simple. Fletcher... delivers a series of statements deadpan, like a stream of consciousness: a cat will die if you try to dry it using a microwave; socks are gloves for the feet; water is the same thing as ice; having a baby can help pass the time; theatre is mainly pretending. The effect is both absurdly comic and faintly troubling... In a sense, what we are witnessing is our own tragedy: to know everything about the world and yet understand nothing at all.
Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
https://timetchells.com/projects/sight-is-the-sense-that-dying-people-tend-to-lose-first/
http://twitter.com/tim_etchells
