A
woman who embarks on a research to find out more about the city she is living
in and a man who is eccentric, but throws one or two lines of wise words at
moments least expected, sustained the 45-minute Leaping Fish in the City with
humorous moments.
To
me, it's a very Jungian piece, where the woman encounters the shadow, animus
and Self aspects within her. According to the psychologist and psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1990), the shadow
consists of the dark elements of the personality with emotional and primitive aspects
that resist moral control; the animus is the masculine aspect that a woman
experiences; and the Self archetype is often a spiritual character with
knowledge, insight, wisdom, cleverness and intuition, represented by a wise old
man. To Jung (1964), the shadow in each individual represents the hidden,
repressed and unfavorable aspects of the personality.
In
the performance, the peculiar man, who does not behave within the boundary of a
commonly accepted social behavioral convention, is a reflection of the woman’s
inner shadow that she is rejecting and repressing. At the same time, the man is
also the wise Self within the woman, which is represented by her inner voices
that she hears at some points of time despite her hectic lifestyle.
After rejecting and ignoring the shadow and inner silence within her for the majority of her adult life, the woman eventually embraces the animus and accepts the shadow within her. She finally stops and listens to her heart, and starts to understand who she is.
Dates: Thursday 21 March (SOLD OUT), Friday 22 March (Limited tickets available)
Admission: $18/$12 (concession) available from The Substation box office (63377800)
Time & Venue: 8pm, The Substation Gallery (45 Armenian Street, S179936).
References:
Jung,
C.G. (1964). Approaching the Unconscious.In C.G. Jung (ed.). Man and His
Symbols (pp.1-94). London: Aldus Books.
Symbols (pp.1-94). London: Aldus Books.
Jung, C.G. (1990). The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious(R.F.C. Hull,
Trans). NJ: Princeton University Press (Originally published 1963).
Trans). NJ: Princeton University Press (Originally published 1963).
