THE STOLEN CHILD

The Stolen Child is a crossover between fixed media and live theatrical performance. It takes its name from a poem by W. B. Yeats which entails the story of a boy seduced by dark forces. In the context of the piece this happens through a scientific experiment on stage, where one performer acts as the test subject and the other as the experimenter, together recreating Stanley Milgram's famous Obedience experiment from the 60s. In the original experiment a "teacher" was supposedly giving electric shocks to a "student” in order to better perform in a memory task. In the performance case the experimenter is trying to subdue the test subject with the use of electric shock. This process as well as the resistance of the test subject are also directly depicted in sound.

 

The piece can be performed either with or without staging. In the latter case the fixed media should be played in a large and completely dark auditorium.

 

The duration of the piece is ca. 10 minutes and 10 seconds.

 

The first performance of the piece took place on March 4, 2016 in La Casa Encendida, Madrid, during the 9th instalment of the IN-SONORA electronic music festival, with Adria Juan playing the Test Subject and Daniel Portillo the Experimenter.

The second performance took place on March 8, 2016 in The Royal Conservatory of The Hague, as part of the CASS concert series, with Grey Timmers playing the Test Subject and Eduard Figueres the Experimenter.

 

The pictures below were taken during the performance in The Hague.

A video documenting the performance is available on YouTube. 

A stereo version of the entire piece is available on soundcloud.