A Jar Full of Jam

1988, 39:35 min, color, sound

Based on a play about sexual difference by fifteen-year-old Ella Tideman, A Jar Full of Jam is performed entirely by a cast of teenage males. Structuring the work on two levels — a rehearsal and a document of the rehearsal — Labat refigures the role of the viewer and deconstructs the theatrical process. As the playwright herself becomes a kind of "meta-observer," the rehearsal becomes the performance. The minimalist production (no sets, props, or costumes) reduces the audience's point-of-view to her commentary — interventions that contextualize, mediate or radically transform the viewer's perception of the action.

With: Ella Tideman, Sean Maytum, Morten Evelid, Gus Duarte, Oliver Strube, Benjamin Tremblay, Ramon Churruca. Written by Ella Tideman. Director: Tony Labat. Editor: David O. Weissman.