THE YELLOW WALLPAPER is inspired by a short story of the same name by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It is a study of a young woman's descent into madness. Diagnosed as "hysterical", the popular Victorian "rest cure" was prescribed. She is moved into a nursery with a nailed down bed and bars on the windows. She is infantalized by her husband, who asserts that she is only in need of a rest, and must not think, read write, or even move. As her condition deteriorates, the woman becomes obsessed with the moldering yellow wallpaper in her room. Repeating images abstracted from the story combine to create the sense of visual disruption that characterizes the "madness" of the wallpaper.
The original score by Ingram Marshall uses recorded and live sounds, dancer's voices, fog horns, waves, and a recorded score to create an expressive sound world which mirrors the principal character's inner and outer life, and the gradual intermingling and inseparability of the two. The set, by Mark Nayden, combines large, tattered wall sections on rollers that move and shift throughout the dance, with video images by videographer vin Grabill.
photos by Nick Novick
Mia Keinanen
photos by Pam White
