An interactive performance reinvents an orchestra as a rain storm while blurring the distinction between audience and performer.
Audiences were invited to the playful reinvention of the idea of an orchestra as a rainstorm, where they could participate as audience member or as performer. All ages and skill levels were invited to use an array of everyday objects as instruments to mimic the sound of rain. A punk, anyone-can-do-it ethos prevails, though the instrumental groupings (wind, raindrop, and thunder sections) reference a symphony. The sound may crescendo, as with Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, or settle into something reflective, as with Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude. Bonding happens when the players listen and sonically respond to one another, acting in organic coordination. The piece alludes to the connective experience of natural phenomena: even in the concrete of downtown, the experience of rain links us together. Yet it also suggests the way crowds descending upon downtown during Nuit Blanche can be seen as a storm blowing through the streets.