Guestbooks
After every performance, the audience exits into a space where a couple of Guestbooks are laid out. Some people write in them; some don’t. Some send emails which are then taped into the books.
- Thank you all for a unique experience. It's so nice to go to the theatre and be stimulated. Yes, it does seem rather like an evening with Karla and Paul I MEAN Paula and Karl. ...I also loved the dildo on the TV … and the creepy detectives … All were great [but] I never want to ever be in this apartment again. (Sky Gilbert)
- Controlling male – victimized female? Not convinced … Generally, a very benign, relaxed, comfortable evening.
- It is very good to have an appropriate amount of time to digest all the big themes and small details, which were all beautifully in place. (Heather Lash)
- Like nothing I've ever seen. Brave … Theatre meets reality TV.
- Challenging for the mind and difficult for the spirit.
- Although my experience with you work is limited … my immediate reaction is total awe and being floored over your insistence on challenging the audience and seriously demonstrating that rules are for those content to achieve mediocrity. (Sean Ward)
- Remarkable intensity, hell compacted. Monster as victim / victim as monster. An eerie security in being a voyeur surrounded by danger. Bold. Courageous. (Patrick Conner)
- I'm still in a daze – I have no idea what I just saw but I'm sure it will be with me for awhile.
- 2 things, among many, that impress and engage me – 1) how the audience becomes an organism with actors in a complex choreography of shifting places, sitting, standing to accommodate each other. 2) how “trademark” DNA techniques are incorporated into a “naturalistic” style: eg. When Karl uses the music to harass Paula by raising and lowering volume repeatedly. Many of the moments hit home – like the tense long stare / silence between the two actors / characters. Fascinating.
- Hillar: hard to do, hard to stomach. Congratulations. Like all DNA shows, it will alter my own personal DNA – aesthetic / political / sexual ...
- Oh my God. … I feel like this is so much closer. But just a little more … and it will be something – no, not something, it will be like the nightmare this story was born in, something like the nightmare (working) I've had with these two on subway platforms reading about them, in the studio when I closed my eyes, and let their photos burn into a negative in my brain. What a beautiful, hellish gift. (John Delacourt) [dramaturge]
- Impressive play. Also interesting: the audience as witnesses embroiled into the scene. Also exciting: how performers' movements and audience's movements had to merge.
- I feel upset. I feel like crying. Wonder about my boyfriend.
- Demand and command voyeurism. An exceptional exposition of divisive subordinate relationships. (Evan)
- Thanx for helping to get me and my friends into a Valentine's day state of mind. (M. D. Martin)
- Just moving around the set elements adds to the feeling of discomfort. … Veronika – you convey so much with so little (effect, not effort) … A great antidote to the impassivity of mass media. (Craig Thompson)
- Very well done – intense and real. Of course, the threat of being run over at any moment heightened the experience. Bravo!
- The psychological territory of this piece which is “dangerous” in my mind … reactions which are frightening to me. In particular, how attractive certain elements of these people's lives appear to be … their everyday lives are satiated with an extraordinary intensity … and that they are treading into the forbidden – going further and further into dangerous territory all the time – I'm jealous of this. (Nina Arsenault)
- Hillar, another highly disturbing but memorable show.
- Never has a bottle of Champagne felt so evil. Woe. (Gwen Bartleman)
- Great great job. Very upsetting. Very well written. Beautifully executed. I loved all the little details. (Sigrid Johnson)
- You knocked me off my perch – as always. Great work all. (Jini Stolk)
- Gosh yar pushin' it, buddy … (again) – It's gotta be the most radical piece you've ever done. (I've got to say something about tedium as an art from, I'm just not sure what. Nonetheless these seem clichéd notions and that was no cliché.) (Ed Fielding)
- Wow. Possibly, no, definitely the most intrusive theatre I've seen in a long time. (Debra Felstead) Makes you question how far your fantasies could be pushed where reality becomes boring and fantasy enters into the “real” world. Very provocative. The pauses in “action” or the moments of less action added to true realism and heightened the tension. Bravo for pulling it off. (Meredith Caplan)
- The warmth of the room … It is a suffocating claustrophobic experience – with freedom to roam.
- Really fitting the audience into the 4 walls of theatre is brave and a magnificent idea. (Gabriele R.)
- The play was brilliantly staged in the warmth of a beautiful home which made the horror more palpable. … I will recommend it to the serial killer fans I know. (Kalli Paakspuu)
- Entering into the private world – psyche was original and somewhat cinematic – shifting perspectives almost camera-like. Tense, terse, believable dialogue.
- New and thrilling. I thought the concept was amazing. (Zeph W.)
- I feel rubbed raw. (David Duclos)
- I was sitting beside Paula on the couch when she was attacked. I've never felt as torn about not stopping someone from inflicting pain. I won't forget that moment. (Atom Egoyan)
- When it was over, I was left with a huge weight in my chest. (Simla Civelek)
- This is an important work – it's shown the darkest, harrowing depths of psychic despair emerge from the utterly banal.
- True publicprivacy is difficult – why was the speaking sounding wooden, stilted and self-conscious? If these two were truly alone in their apartment? (Mathew Jergusson)
- Very interesting, entertaining and exciting. (Rebecca)
- I think I need “post traumatic” stress therapy. In a couple of places I wanted to leave. (Liia Remmelkoor)
- Congratulations on a brilliantly brutal piece. … I loved the silences, the quiet awful moments where nothing happened and I couldn't help thinking about her tied up. I loved / hated the ropes – they hurt. I loved the little touches around the room. I loved watching the audience react, play games, laugh, show off, wonder what they could or should do. And it was brilliantly horrible to be left in the room at the end of the show with her still here. That hurt most of all. (Ian Carpenter)
- Nice play, Shakespeare!
- I wanted to take a knife from the kitchen and stab Karl repeatedly, and Paula, well I just wanted to slap some sense into her: amazing, how I could feel this considering that I felt somewhat perverse, just watching. … Nice twist at the end to see Paula not as much the victim as we thought. Oh, what games psychotic people play. A dark, profound and moving piece. (Asunta)
- Thank you for the reminder of our inhumanity to one another. Veronika … you are one of the most courageous and gifted actresses I have ever watched. (Kenneth)
- Well, it was shocking! The ropes on the curtains were ingenious. (Kari)
- DNA: makes me scream. Sleep. Laugh. Wait. Smile. Yawn. Experience. Wonder. Cringe. Re-think. Breathe. Anticipate. Sick. Stare. Dream. Fidget. Chew. Accept. Love, hate and … thanks for the effort, thought, risk, talent, humour, horror … The first DNA (in an extremely long time) that I just watched and not worked on … so quite a shock (again, for the first time). I will remember (Chad Dembski)
- Definitely an interesting experience – like nothing I've seen before! Got a little splashed during the Champagne-throwing part, but I forgive you (if you forgive me for eating your chocolate-bars props).
- The use of space was intriguing – a game of musical chairs for the audience members … BUT, the lack of consideration for the audience was unnerving … even still, I still felt like the actors were “performing” … I didn't believe that the actors' portrayals of the characters was convincing … Good effort!
- I thought it would with a whimper, not a bang – but you're right, Hillar, silence is best. Good slice of life razor-thin. (Mare Tiido)
- You've made me realize boredom can be a theatrical tool when skillfully applied. I mean this a compliment. Banality of evil – too right! (Stephen Caulfield)
- I wish the play had been 9 hours long. I didn't want it to stop. I also wish I could have eaten one of the chocolate bars. I loved being a ghost. Something I've always wanted to be. (Virginia Paakspuu)
- Fun to visit your place. You two are weird. What are all these other people doing here? (Jack Walker)
- There are many dares offered to the audience … The door to the bedroom is left open and we're dared to save the girl. It's a dare too, or maybe a challenge, to not let the audience be released at the end with applause at the appearance of the performers to tell us all “It's all right, I understand it, but we don't want it.” We are given nothing; it's a reversal. Normally theatre is a gift: it's something shared. This, though, it's something taken from us. A thing I'll need to continue to consider. (Michael M.)
- Thank you for taking risks and doing great theatre. Stunning, knocked the wind out of me – intensity and spontaneity. Chilling. Beautiful. Fierce.
- Very intense. I found myself surprisingly cool even at the most jolting moments. I attribute this to the calming effect of the actors, who who were impressively comfortable in their roles. I only paced like a scared cat at the quiet moments.
- Thoroughly nauseating in all – good job, (A.F.)
- Done with skill, discretion + probability.
- Exceptionally intriguing and exceptionally boring.
- I felt I was inside this piece. So much time to reflect while the action was happening. The musical scene was horrifically beautiful and funny?! Terrifying – the lack of any moral conscience. So real – comic timing – painful pauses. I hate to love it. I feel sad. Yuck. (Jenn Boggs)