THE VIEW FROM HALFWAY DOWN
After pacting with suicide, a body is trespassed by the illumination that ensues prior to death. On stage, time appears fragmented, elastic, multidirectional. Memories and longings intertwine; faces are evoked. Everything is possible, and not an option anymore. We witness regret, conviction, surrealism, and contemplation — but above all, the raw truth of the astonishing view from halfway down.
The View From Halfway Down constitutes an onstage improvisational series that dwells in the liminal space between living and dying. Unfolding from a speculative perception shaped by the finality of choosing suicide, the work asks: What does life look like after one seals a pact to its end?
Conceived and presented as a solo work in Porto and Lisbon, and currently as an ongoing collaboration with guests artists in Porto.
"A little wind, a summer sun
a river rich and regal.
A flood of fond endorphins
brings a calm that knows no equal.
You’re flying now, you see things
much more clear than from the ground.
It's all okay, or it would be
were you not now halfway down."
— Allison Tafel. The View From Halfway Down