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'Welcome, this is the year of the big race.' With these words and with the energetic drive of a cheer-leader Ashley invites the viewer, and particularly the listener, to a break-neck attempt to keep up with this production. His music is again the main focus, and American culture remains the dominating theme. His flights of fancy embrace such diverse topics as 'Are we being studied by UFO's?', 'General dereliction of duty', and 'What we need today are memory-memorials', presented like a conversation whirling crazily round in a spin-drier and carried on in a sort of chant. One of his pronouncements, 'Only the top is visible, the work is hidden' looks like a motto for this opera, in which there is certainly an attempt to look down through the clear water and show a glimpse of the underlying structure. This is indeed only the potted version of an unrealisable project called 'Acts of God'. This model could, forits superabundant visual splendour alone, also claim that title.
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Sonja van der Burg
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Script: Robert Ashley, Camera: Fred Worden, James Drickle, Jonathan Taylor, Richard Levine, Lights: Scott Briendel, Editing: Alan Sherrod, Effects: Joan Albert, Ruth Peyser, Sound and sound mixing: Paul Shorr, Music: Robert Ashley, Paul Shorr, Blue Gene Tyranny, Set design: Doug Childers, Costumes: Jacqueline Humbert, Production: Performing Artservices Inc, Robert Ashley, Lawrence Lemak Brickman, With: Kate Valk, Ron Vawter, Ronald Vance, Robert Ashley, Margaret Ahrens
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