Director, writer and actor Phelim McDermott’s musing on creativity and his relationship with composer Philip Glass and his music strikes me as quite beautiful, but some will find it exasperating.
There’s that quasi-mystical title, for a start – “tao” meaning the way or the path – and a whole heap of associations that range from sacred texts to floatation tanks and the Japanese art of Kintsugi ceramic repair. McDermott explores his themes in a manner that’s fey, playful and leisurely – I’ve seen shorter Lears - while three puppeteer-performers manipulate scale and perspective, conjuring worlds from wispy music score sheets, figurines and props.
