BABYLON
The Crypt – St Mary’s of the Angels, Boulcott Street, Wellington
28/02/2012 - 02/03/2012
Production Details
In Babylon, prepare to encounter a rich tapestry of sound reminiscent of an ancient place.
Evocative, Spine tingling and deeply entrancing sound theatre recommended for audience who want to awaken their senses.
In Babylon a group of voice artists create a complex soundscape reminiscent of an ancient place. Using extended vocal techniques, polyphony & technology to layer and mix their voices into a rich tapestry of sound.
The audience is lead thru the darkened crypt of St Mary’s of the Angels to encounter a complex soundscape. Weaving together evocative images to bring the audience into a primordial world of light and dark.
Sascha Perfect is aWellington based performance artist and producer. She has created several performances and films (Chimera 2011, The Quantum Enigma 2010, Monitor 2008 – Organ City 2007 – Performing at the Body Festival,Christchurch, Dunedin Fringe, Dublin Dance Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival & Excursions Performance festival).
Sascha was awarded a Christchurch Creative Communities award for Chimera to premiere at the Body Festival, a CNZ Travel Award for Dunedin Fringe 2012, a New Work Award from Creative NZ for The Quantum Enigma, 2010 Dunedin Fringe, a Step Beyond Travel Award by the European Cultural Foundation (2007) and the Arts Council of Ireland – Artist Bursary (2006,2007,2008).
An intimate performance for an audience of 15 people per show.
30mins running time
Tues 28 Feb – Fri 2 March
6 & 7pm (2 shows per night)
@ The Crypt – St Mary’s of the Angels, Boulcott Street, Wellington
An extraordinary sensory experience whichever way you interpret it
Review by John Smythe 29th Feb 2012
Abandon reality all who enter here; submit instead to abstraction. Sense, recall, interpret, imagine; intuitively or at will. And know that if you should decode a meaning in anything, another will be possible. Besides, what gives you the clue will change to invalidate the first explanation.
Perhaps, as you wait in the outer room (of the crypt of St Mary of All Angels), the whiff of a kerosene lamp will prompt a specific emotional memory.
Once led into darkness, hearing is the only sense; sound the only stimulus, apart from what darkness itself may provoke. Can the human voice really be the only source of all we hear (apart from the odd bit of traffic outside)? Later, as rods and cones adjust and faint light sources have their way, shadows and shapes will join the mix.
For me, being naturally given to questing for meaning, it is the ambiguities of what emerges that intrigue. Is that creaking or is it weeping? A cry of anguish or a concrete cutter? Are we hearing the pain of countless generations or an ancient chant – and are those animals joining in…?
Is this old Mesopotamia’s Babylonor 16th centuryBritain’s Bedlam?
Gasps or whispers? A conversation? This is definitely fear merged with anger and misery now … but isn’t that laughter? A straining, panting … what’s that about? Animals eating? Witches conspiring? Argument? Scolding? Justification?
The sea or a huge man-made machine? A joyous celebration or pitiful mourning? The strain of lifting or constipation? An ancient mantra or a small plane?
And so it goes … An extraordinary sensory experience whichever way you interpret it, created by voice artists Sascha Perfect, Chris Prosser and Asher Norris. They use “extended vocal techniques, polyphony and technology to layer and mix their voices onto a tapestry of sound,” in case you need to know that.
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
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