Deep Sleep

A woman is telling the story of how she went to Mexico looking for an obscure archaeological site; how she met a man who promised to take her there; how they stayed together locked in cross-purposes and misunderstandings - how, but never why. The central event has been reconstructed through stills, narration, and enactment by two performers in a tableau limited by the boundaries of the front projection screen.

Texas, 1969. Michael infuriates girlfriend Mary-Bob by accepting the draft to serve in Vietnam. But after a violent incident at boot camp, he deserts and escapes over the border to British Columbia. Here he finds shelter with a group of Russian pacifists, the Doukhobors. Meanwhile back in the US, Mary-Bob becomes a militant anti-war activist... Their stories are told through letters they are writing to each other but cannot send, because both are on the run.

A young wife becomes pregnant, but the child's father is not her husband. Afraid to tell him, she leaves home, and meets an outgoing, free-spirited woman on a bus. Although the two are polar opposites, the wife moves in with the young woman, and finds out that they have much more in common than she realized.

"A woman's attempt to keep chaos at bay by naming, classifying, and ordering her domestic environment. This ultimately results in a total loss of ego and verbal capacity. Through the innovative juxtaposition of printed text, graphics, step printing, and disintegrating soundtrack, Gruben constructs a narrative breakdown that parallels the unconscious patterning of her character's mind." - Richard Stanford, National Gallery of Canada