Stirring up Ideas. . .

“James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Eric Satie: An Alphabet,” is a play as dizzying as the teacup ride at Disney World. It is a rarely performed piece by the American avant-garde composer, John Cage, that is being staged at Bard’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts Nov. 11 and 12 at 8 p.m. It is in honor of the fourth year of the John Cage Trust at Bard College. Like the teacup ride, the play is best experienced as a whirl of thoughts and impressions. Cage, who died in 1991, said he did not believe life was something that made sense. His art reflects that notion. That being said, he also said that life, though large and complex, was meant to be enjoyed. Trying to pin it down to linear, narrow or concrete concepts would be as productive as trying to, well, see Continued from previous page clearly while in your spinning teacup. “An Alphabet,” directed by Laura Kuhn, who originally adapted this radio play for the stage in 2001, toys with sound, text and ideas. Excerpts from Joyce’s “Finnegan’s Wake” are used as an underlying narrative web. Although “An Alphabet” originally had no music, Cage’s “sound notes” were studied and filled out under the direction of composer and “music designer” Mikel Rouse. This production has more than 200 aural evocations of events such as a bullfight, a marriage ceremony, an earthquake, even the humble copy machine. In another way, “An Alphabet” is an alphabet of ideas and impressions crafted from the language and philosophies of the artists and thinkers mentioned in the title as well as many others, including Henry David Thoreau, Mao Zedong, Brigham Young and his wife (one of them, anyway). For tickets, cal 845-758-7900, or go to www.fishercenter.bard.edu.