Sunday 10 April 2011

Letter from Lara

Dearest An,


A very quick word to announce to you the arrival of our little one! Sevan Isaiah Brodey was born March 31st- and judging from his long fingers, he may just be a piano player, so he'll need lots of lessons from his uncle An!


I understand you didn't get my email from way back announcing my pregnancy. I do hope this one gets to you. please fill me in on your news, my dear.


I'm back home and in full on baby mode-which means I can't write long emails but as always, I am thinking of you and hoping all is well and delightful in your world.


sending much love,


L.

Letter to Lara

Dearest Lara,

Simon did tell me that you were pregnant and I meant to write to you. I didn't get your own email, though. But somehow the right occasion escaped me. I thought of it yesterday once again and intended to sit at my piano and write - oh yes, my laptop is on the piano at the moment, so I can work on my music...
I am so delighted to hear the news! I'm so delighted to know that I'm an uncle to this wonderful baby! I hope to be able to come to Toronto and pay you a visit!
Lots of things have happened since last time we wrote to each other.
I knew that you had found the right companion. And I'm happy I got to catch a glimpse of him, even if it was super early in the morning in the cold, cold Canadian winter!
I gather your parents must be in heaven. You know what? Chân will also be a father soon. His baby is due for this summer! Mathilde and him had tried for quite a long time but I guess the baby didn't want to show up unless my brother slowed down his crazy working habits.

So how are you after the birth? I gather the baby doesn't allow you much sleep. I hope you eat well and enough, and that you take good care of yourself! How is father doing? Wow, it's funny to picture care-free and wild Lara as a mom! I must say, as my friend's kids are growing, I really feel a sting in my heart at the idea of not having my own. And that has nothing to do with being gay or not. But a child requires full attention, care and love, and it would not be fair to him or her, to have a father with his head in his projects all the time.
I have this friend in Singapore who has two sons. The youngest one is 6 this year and I love him so much. He also loves to be with me and constantly follows me to play, chat, show me things. Just to be with me. My heart is melting!!!! It' like being in love, somehow! 

And how are you dealing with your theatrical projects? What's going on for you professionally?

So, some news.... I now live in Taipei as you may know. I left Paris last summer. It was a difficult thing to do, and even while I was in Taipei, the first months were very much Parisian. I had left without completing many things so they followed me.
As you can imagine, I do miss the land of the camembert, but I'm glad I'm here now. Taipei may not be the most gorgeous city on earth, but the people make it beautiful. 2010 was extremely busy. I completed my second album, gave a concert, prepared for the move, wrote a new full scale ballet for the Japanese choreographer Jo Kanamori, came to Taipei, wrote music for two other dance pieces, had the Parisian premiere of my first work with Jo at the Maison de la Culture du Japon for which I came back to my beloved city last December. Then I reached full circle and BAAAM! It hit me on the face. I was in front of terra incognita. Everything had to be built from scratch. And that was frightening.  
I had no new project so far. So I kept myself busy getting myself comfortable in my new flat. But then it was a bit downhill until recently. As my father said, that's normal, you reach the highs when you are creating, but after that, you have to allow yourself to go down for some time.
Now I'm writing a play! I've had seed of an idea which had grown in my head for the past few years. Now I feel ready to work on it. Of course it's not going to be your usual type of play.
For now, I can say that it's for 2 actresses speaking 2 different languages. The 2 characters are one mortal woman (A) and one immortal woman (B), each of them coming from the imagination of the other's. The mortal one wakes up after an accident and slowly realises that she has two memories, one which belongs to a woman (C) who actually exists (or did exist).
The immortal woman goes through many rebirths for each time she reaches the end of a life cycle, she 'forgets' her previous life. So she has to write about each of her lives in a diary. Woman C is one of her characters. The play will be shaped as a blog on stage, with music and videos 'posted' as the story goes. I still have to figure out what, how, etc...

It's the first of many projects I have which will all connected together. I have been nurturing the ideas for nearly a decade now. Hopefully the coming years will the materialisation of them.

It's quite weird how my work feeds on my life. Sometime, I don't even need to wait for the events that took place to materialise in a more abstract form before becoming ideas/elements of my work, it seems that they happen so that I immediately use them. The accident at the beginning of the play came after I had an accident myself. And It reminded me of another one I saw when I was still living in Paris: a young woman was lying on the ground after having been hit by a lorry, a pool of blood spreading under her body. I literally saw her soul go up. Then recently, I was reading a book and guess what happens in it? A woman has an accident and loses her memory. So many things like that. Last year as I was writing the score for the ballet The Tales of Hoffmann, I realised that there was some weird game of mirror taking place: I felt like I was in one of Hoffmann's tale and that story was reflecting his own story when he was writing his tales... I'm really getting confused sometime...

Anyway, I'm very happy about this play. The idea is to adapt the story in different languages. I don't say translate because according to the language, the story would have to be adapted to suit the style and custom of the country. So it's a bit like a Lego play. You can rebuild it over and over, post new music, make new films for it.

I have other projects coming too. But maybe I shall keep it for next time, for I realise that I have written too much for now and you are a busy mom!!!

Take care my dear!

Love to you and to the other two!!!

An