What is it that makes us remember or forget specific details about people or events from our past? How does the brain store and seemingly delete arbitrary information? What goes on in the regions of the brain that we don’t use on a daily basis? Is the process of trying to forget an indirect route to retaining memory?
The University of Winnipeg’s Department of Theatre and Film explores these and other complex questions about memory, remembrance, and forgetting in Echoes of Time Forgotten. This performance piece is created and performed by members of the fourth-year Honours Devised Theatre class and is directed by faculty member Claire Borody.
Echoes of Time Forgotten is a theatrical collage of visual, aural, and textual images that is inspired and informed by dance, photography, poetry, prose, and visual arts, as well as journalism and scientific research. The performance is the result of individual and ensemble responses to questions that explore the phenomenon of memory.
“The way that human beings store and retrieve memory is such a fascinating process,” said director Claire Borody. “Why is it that we remember some moments with such clarity and other moments seem wrapped in haze and are difficult to access? I’m also interested in the way in which public memory is established or forgotten. Subconsciously this interest in memory and forgetting has driven a lot of my creative and formal research.”
Echoes of Time Forgotten is the second offering from this group of performers who created RE-WIRE(D): an evening of solo pieces in November 2023.
Performances are Wednesday, March 20 through Friday, March 22 at 8:00 p.m. nightly and Saturday, March 23 at 7:00 p.m. at the Asper Centre for Theatre and Film at 400 Colony Street (entrance from Balmoral). Admission is free. Reservations are recommended and can be made at the UWinnipeg’s Department of Theatre and Film website at http://theatre.uwinnipeg.ca.
Talk-back sessions with the performers and director will be held after each performance.
