"Performers specialize in putting themselves in disequilibrium and then displaying how they can regain their balance, psychophysically, narratively and socially - only to lose their balance, and regain it, again and again."
Much of Presumption was as much about the position of set and the actors in respect to that set as it was the delivery of dialogue. The empty black floor at the beginning had on it precise white markings which would each by the end house some part of furniture whether it be a leg of a chair or the end of a bookcase. The characters would cleverly use for example, the lack of telephone to answer when it rung as an excuse to bring out a whole 'office' complete with desk, chair, paper clutter and telephone.
Consider this:
"The body is alive, mobile and plastic; it exists in three dimensions. Space and the objects used by the body must most carefully take this fact into account. The overall arrangement of the setting comes just after the actor in importance; it is through it that the actor makes contact with and assumes reality within the scenic space." Appia (1919, 1954 & 1993, quoted in Huxley & Witts 2002, p.29)During Presumption, the actors turned a blank canvas stage into a realistic, domestic household. Although the script purposely dictated they would have to fetch furniture, this gradually seemed less and less surreal and some became a reflective part of the characters relationship which struggled to exist in the current time without needing to reflect to the past or concern about the future. It felt that the constant shift of furniture, the strain of its weight on bodies and the anguish of the couple's relationship could have existed forever.
"Existance is not infinity, but that which allows the existant to be thought of as deriving from infinity." (Goulish, 2000, p.5).Infinity is endless in its ways, thoughts and structures. The characters in Presumption thought that life how it is now is how it will be forever. Goulish suggests nothing can last forever, but the existing simply coincides with that which is infinite, so can essentially conclude however we make it.
A website is infinity. The structure can be endlessly altered, the links variably navigated and therefore your journey through it can always differ from the last. The words of a book are in the same way, infinite.
The actors in Presumption were constantly challenging themselves mentally with narrative as well as pushing their bodies towards physical limits - even sometimes at the same time. For example, a scene would pause while one character realised a table they were about to put some plates on was missing, would hurry off for it and come back whilst reinstating the text after a rewind. Then they'd rapidly firing off the previously delivered dialogue with the other character as they struggled with the undoubtedly heavy pine table above their head before finally reaching the point in the dialogue at which they'd first paused. Putting the object in place on the correct white markings we'd see them visibly take a breath before continuing, now their body was exhausted.
I often feel that reading a book is sometimes like a hefty physical activity. Not only are you trying to make sense of all the words running before your eyes but you're carrying through with you the ones you've previously read for it to make any sense. And sometimes those big words or complex sentences are just killers, more so when you repeat the line.