Marina and Lee

 “This road is long and hard. I'm tired of just walking, walking and I can't go on. Is it getting darker? I think it must be. The stars are going out as I walk. I hope they'll make it through tonight. Someone said they'll go out soon, do you think that can be true? Having no money can be a problem, back home it was easy to get loans and run up bad debts on someone else's credit cards. Out here in the middle of a fucking desert that's going to be hard…”

Marina & Lee begins with a physics lecture from a woman in a shop-girl's overalls. The world she describes is one in which the laws of gravity, magnetic attraction and so on no longer function. The work explores the kinds of narratives and ways of being that might be appropriate for such a world. Throughout the performance, the central figure, Marina (Claire Marshall), describes her journey through a bizarre contradictory landscape that is part desert, part city and part paradise. As she journeys, the rest of the performance collides with her, often collaging or overlaying several strands of material and imagery.

For the most part, it looks as if Marina has wandered into the wrong performance, the wrong story or even the wrong life. There are kung-fu fights and trashy operas that seem to turn into adverts, featuring cowboys, barking dogs and hysterical women with guns. Marina & Lee includes two short sections in which the lights are raised on stage and the performers play a set of confessions directly to the audience—this material later became the starting point for the performance Speak Bitterness (1994).

© Forced Entertainment 1991. Theatre performance.

Credits 

Conceived and devised by the company

Performers Robin Arthur, Terry O'Connor, Claire Marshall,
Cathy Naden, Mark Randle
Video performer: Richard Lowdon

Direction: Tim Etchells, Richard Lowdon
Text: Tim Etchells
Design / Lighting Design: Richard Lowdon, Nigel Edwards
Soundtrack: John Avery