Nod at the Fox’s production of Breaking Up with Reality, performed by Eden Harbud for the Living Record Festival, 2021 is right about one thing - nothing is ever quite as sobering as a curious awakening from an origami rabbit to force us into an existential quagmire. Has social distancing become so austere that we are compelled to talk to inanimate objects? Where Shakespeare needs no introduction to write poetry to his lovers, if reality were our lover – perhaps a love letter in her memory is the antidote to our lockdown loneliness?
Breaking up with Reality is a synchronistic combo of a spoken-word eulogy, with soundscapes and music milieu that paves the way for us to explore the traumatic break-up with our past and transitions us to a momentary, meditation about the relationship we will have with our future. The nostalgic memoire transports us through time on a train journey that escorts us from the workplace, depositing us all the way to our silent abode in the solitude of our living room, where the clock is ticking! A discordant cacophony of chattering voices can no longer be heard, only questions in our consciousness remain: How does one mould their identity with no one left to talk to in quarantine? Suddenly, we are afloat on a nostalgic sea, absurdly craving our mundane, daily routines that once held us all together.
In this world of the new normal, intervals of time are carefully measured between mental reverie and the daily tasks of tea-making and showering, not to mention the clock that seems to go on for what seems like eternity. Yet even these mundane rituals can be cathartic, becoming respite from our insipid mind games. Not to mention the virtues! Tea-making builds muscle and resilience, even athletic stature as we race like sprinters to the fridge door; got to grab the long-life milk before the kettle boils-over! It is these moments between escape and reflection which feed the algorithms of our imagination – just like the bird flying out the window that flashes back at us the freedom we once had. But striving too hard can leave us wailing for the bubble to burst! Time drags the day on as we clutch our memories close to our chests. Perhaps what torments us most, is the fact that reality is not retreating, not budging, nor is it playing a game of charades with us.
Beyond elbow bops and waking up to a cuppa, before rush hour hits – where has reality gone and left us? When will all this nonsense come to an end? If only reality were only refusing to emerge from behind its mask! Yet sadly, it’s abandoned us without even a hug goodbye.
Everyone knows that the mind replays what the heart cannot delete and this experience of lockdown has left most of us numb to the point that we cannot tell what happiness feels like anymore. If this is you, then Breaking up with Reality will give you a voice to speak the sounds you hear when lips no longer explain the confusion you feel. I guarantee that nothing will enliven your memory of 2020 better than reliving it through an ode to an origami rabbit!
Launched for the Living Record Festival, 2021
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