Leslie Ting
Photo: Curtis Perry
A Leslie Ting Production in Partnership with Theatre Passe Muraille/What Brings You In, concept, artistic director, producer, performer (violin and as herself) Leslie Ting, percussion by Germaine Liu, Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, closes Oct. 25.
There are two key phrases that anchor Leslie Ting’s new show at Theatre Passe Muraille. The first is, “Your listening is the transformative act,” and the other is the actual title, What Brings You In.
Ting is a classical violinist and a former optometrist, as crazy as that combination sounds. Her career is not as a concert violinist per se, but as a creator who uses her classical violin training to create unusual pieces of theatre in the form of installations. Her shows are very unconventional, very informal, very relaxing, and very welcoming.
The phrase “Your listening is the transformative act” is what she wants the audience to feel. She wants our ability to listen to take us into a new place – for listening to become a creative act. We’re not to be passive; listening must become active.
And in the case of What Brings You In, that is the opening statement that a therapist would ask. Therapy figures very much in the show, because the running text is about the various therapies that Ting has engaged in over the years and what prompted her to take them.
She has a wry delivery—almost laughing at herself for taking therapy session after therapy session in her many attempts to heal herself. This sense of humour— Ting’s raw self-mockery – pervades the show.
Her parents paid for her to become an optometrist because they felt there was no money in being a musician and were incredibly upset when she told them she wanted to pursue music instead. Her anger at her mother in particular sent her into therapy, and we follow her trajectory as each new therapy session leads into another. She even tried Reiki.
At one-point, mid-show, she says the very funny line, “Just how many therapy sessions does it take?” and later the more screamingly funny line, at least to me, where she admits that she and her husband engaged in couples therapy.
Her collaborator is the extraordinarily talented percussionist Germaine Liu, who had her own solo moment with an amplified sandbox, courtesy of sound designer Matt Smith. Running her hands through amplified sand became such lush, rich tactile music that the very manipulation of the sand and the resonance it created were unbelievably mesmerizing. As well, during the course of the show, she and Ting had several fascinating improvisational moments together featuring the violin and a plethora of percussion instruments.
Germaine Liu and Amplified Sandbox (Leslie Ting on floor)
Photo: Curtis Perry
Interspersed with the therapy-session memoirs and encounters with Liu, were musical interludes.
Ting is a classical violinist and admits she’s trying to play the perfect concert, which she knows is not possible. Along with an excerpt from “ Dirt Road” by Linda Caitlin Smith, two other pieces were commissioned specifically for What Brings You In, “Beholding for solo violin & electronics” by Rose Bolton and Julie Mermelstein’s “folds, in crossings for solo violin and six-speaker surround sound electronics”. This last piece is absolutely stunning—the combination of a live violin against that incredible avalanche of sound is breathtaking in its conceit.
What Brings You In is a very relaxed show to say the least. At one point Ting announces, “I feel like lying down.” Where else do you find pillows and mats in the space and the performer inviting the audience to lie downwith her, and many did. It was informal and communal, very different from a standard concert or play, and lighting designer Theodore Belc provided the restful ambiance for those who chose to join Ting on the floor.
There’s also a digital version of the performance—a kind of radio experience—where you can buy tickets to listen remotely to What Brings You In.
Was listening a transformative act? I certainly felt I was in an immersive experience, part personal confession, part concert, part sound installation. Was I a more active listener? I’m not sure. The commissioned pieces, with their recorded soundscapes certainly enveloped me completely.
My takeaway is that maybe the healing of the piece lies in two places: for the audience, it is the power of community, in being there together and sharing the space and the experience, and for Ting personally, it is the healing power of music.
Leslie Ting
Photo: Olivia Nikkanen