On the Boards

Early Morning Opera/director and playwright Lars Jan’s “The Institute of Memory (TIMe)” explores Jan’s quest to learn more about his estranged and reclusive father. The multimedia piece incorporates neon and an amplified typewriter, along with transcripts from wiretaps, Polish and Nazi archives, and x-rays and brain scans from the hospital in which Jan’s father was treated before he died. The piece delves deeply into Jan’s search, and draws parallels between current electronic surveillance and a lack of privacy during the Cold War. It is an exploration of the way new technology is reshaping the way we remember, by way of an intensely personal search.