The Uncertainty Principle

The Uncertainty Principle was made as part of LISA Live(s) in Kikker, which took place from 19 to 22 December 2007 in Theater Kikker in Utrecht. During this multi-day event each member of Association LISA made a work in response to the work of another member. The Uncertainty Principle was Nicole Beutler’s response to Hester van Hasselt’s research work, based on Ill Seen Ill Said, a piece of short prose by Samuel Becket. It is an attempt by the writer to recreate his deceased mother using only words.

‘I decided to translate this onto the stage literally, by trying to make ‘HER’ appear in the here and now by writing with chalk on a blackboard: writing, erasing, and writing again what had been written. Such that ‘She’ could be present one moment, but absent the next. It is an attempt to make ‘HER’ appear and dance in our imagination – ‘HER’ simultaneously being Becket’s old woman or Hester van Hasselt’s or any other woman.’
Nicole Beutler