Unplugged is a performance that does not feature electronic amplification or sound modification and is generally performed in an intimate atmosphere. Yangon by night is an intimate city.
The streets’ sounds travel in staccato, no longer amplified by day times churning thresher, as the surface of the city and its vibrations settle into the nocturnal acoustics of a quite different reality. Obscured in shadow, when the city rests, anonymous dancers perform their tender steps tracing
the slow heartbeats and murmur of the city. Under the weight of darkness as if towed by the moon
a theater curtain opens to a stage where the actors dance wrapped in blindfolds, their inner voices
and intrepid motion concealing the instruments of an unseen orchestra.
The sound of silence that re-works the city’s surface and untangles the cacophony of the day
reveals another side to Yangon. Burma’s new political road is beset with contradictions; a kind of commotion rattles and claws at the city, screaming for recognition while offering little in return.
Yangon Unplugged witnesses the detached going through the night, always with the same rhythm, reassured by the acoustic memory that inhabits the old souls and new shadows of the city.
