In a Manner of Speaking

This year's Arches' Live has been distinctively local and youthful. Flora Pitrolo stands out because of her confident delivery and understanding of the relationship between personal detail and theatrical polish. In a Manner of Speaking deals with Pitrola's inspirations and aspirations, honing in on seminal moments in her life, from her first words to an encounter with Patti Smith that gave her a vision of language's profound flexibility. Her style nods to Laurie Anderson's mixture of monologue and music: the brief songs that are interspersed throughout the recollections structure and entertain, allowing Pitrolo to lead the audience through her memories without loosing herself in self-indulgence. Her light wit, combined with a serious sense of importance, lends Pitrolo a charismatic presence. Essentially, Speaking describes Pitrola's relationship with her husky, sensuous voice. A recorded sequence of her first word ("loop") suggests that words are her first connection to reality, simultaneously reaching out and pulling attention back to herself. Her calculated attempts to lower her voice – cigarettes, not wearing enough clothes in winter – reveal an artist refining her tool in the incidental details of life. This is an explicit study of how creativity bleeds into the mundane world, and how the artistic process goes far beyond rehearsal and performance, evolving personality and behaviour. Beneath it all, when the songs are removed and the stories told, the voice remains.