MetaMorphic Ritual Theatre Co.
We produce 'plays' which are often interactive, performing for our audience to some extent but usually at some point blurring the boundaries between audience/initiates and performers.
Sometimes we will take the audience (individually or in groups) through a physical landscape as part of their journey; but even when we work within a one-room theatre we aim to offer the audience as well as performers the potential for at least one level of personal Metamorphosis via our ritual theatre.
Our 'plays' are occasionally fully scripted but usually develop from a basic premise, concept or plot which is workshopped and developed by the group, individual performers devising their own (flexible) lines and movements within this context, with feedback and suggestions from the others involved.
Sometimes sections of the plays, often towards the end, are left open to spontaneous chaotic elements once the 'stage has been set' by the more structured sections.
ORCHESTRA-ted ChAOS at The FEAST of VALHALLA
Our most ambitious projects have been the three Labyrinth installations/performances we constructed at D.T.E ConFest (Easter 95,97) and Earthcore (99) festivals, inwhich we set up entire mazes for the audience/initiates to journey through. We played different characters along the paths, interacting with initiates on their journeys so that they fully became part of the 'play', which was formed from a series of basic nightly performance cycles; specific events occurring in certain places and the rest spontaneous.
Because of its scope and significance, the Labyrinth has its own LABYRINTH PAGE on this site. Other productions by Metamorphic Ritual Theatre are summarised below, along with photographs and an example semi-script, 'Circe's Banquet':
Metamorphic Ritual Theatre is primarily based in Australia but performances (including collaborations with local performers in new locales) in Europe and UK have also been occurring in recent years. Depending on timing and locale, we may be available for performances or interactive installations at festivals etc.
CURRENTLY SEEKING MORE PERFORMANCES in SCANDINAVIA, ITALY, UK in AUG-SEPT '08
Any enquiries please email director
Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule (right):
odxob@yahoo.com
2007 saw a new collaboration between Metamorphic Ritual Theatre Co. and Theatre of Ophidia UK, who hosted and promoted Orryelle«s work in England in September.
Theatre of Ophidia«s affiliation with 'Fright Nights' Supernatural Investigations accessed venues and locations of considerable magickal history to enhance the atmosphere of these special ritual performances and create immersive magickal events:
28th Sept.'07 in London
Theatre of Ophidia presents...
The exhibition featured new drawings by Orryelle for hir Graphic Grimmoire, 'Conjunctio' (to be published in Sept.'08 by FULGUR LIMITED), plus some new sculptural work.
The PERFORMANCES following the Exhibition featured a combination of METAMORPHIC RITUAL THEATRE (including a new and extended version of '8 GATES') and Magickal Music by:
Orryelle (violin & voice), solo and collaborating with «This Too Shall Pass« (experimental electronica) on a live soundtrack to Parzival ritual theatre (see Synopses below)
Plus Raagnagrok (London synth-sitar duo)
14th Sept 8 GATES and PARZIVAL as above, at the spectacular LYVEDEN NEW BIELD near Oundle.
Photos above by Maryam Hashemi.
EquinoX 23rd Sept Rome at Ex-Mental-Hospital 'S.MARIA DELLA PIETA'
30 september at
"Stalkernoiser", Palermo (Sicily).
Loom of Lila was initially inspired by this statue of Kali-Arachne (right) which Orryelle continued to create in conjunction with the development of the show. The statue was a more ambitious project than first realized and was only completed just in time for incorporation into the first performance, with the last-minute construction by Taz of a metal skeleton for structural support after She was resurrected from the ritual burning -images above- of the Goddess of the funeral pyre, of death and rebirth. Video footage from this rite has been incorporated into the production.
There's also another Loom of Lila video sample via HERE
Zeus is initially turned to stone when He sees Medusa, but She seduces Him with her primal movements and he begins to move with Her, eventually integrating this rampant aspect of His psyche -no longer suppressable. They dance together to form a 'MeduZeus' Caduceus.
They become one hermaphroditic horned figure (BaphoMetis) with primal anima integrated, until Athena returns to deliver the final twist...
- Performed as a post-interval coda with 'Arachne Ascendant' at the two La Mama performances.
'Nectar' -an adaptation of the Ancient Greek Eleusian Rites. Audience/initiates were led through a landscape within a rainforest setting. Greeted at the top of a steep hill by Hermes, their guide, they were brought to a Crossroads, where they met the triple-headed Goddess, Hecate, who offered them a choice of three paths -birth, death or return. Initiates (those who chose 'death' blindfolded) all eventually ended up in a field where Persephone rises up out of the ground, heralding the birth of Spring. Driads came out of the trees, Demeter rejoiced and Hermes, shedding his lofty ideals of transcendence of desire, metamorphosised into the nature God Pan to have ritual sex with Persephone.
The play then shifts into the ritual creation of a 'flying ointment' made from various psychoactive herbs and fungi, with witches involved dancing around a cauldron. The ointment is then smeared on willing initiates' wrists, while performers employ the traditional application of inserting ointment-dipped broomsticks into vaginas and anus. As the atmosphere begins to warp, the Weaver of the Three Fates takes the end of Initiates' wool threads and weaves them into a web between audience and performers throughout the rest of the play, throughwhich they watch a series of ritual dances and scenes using the magickal symbols of basket, broom, mirror and candle. Action becomes spontaneously chaotic at the end, with all previous characters (including audience 'plants') emerging to play and all previous musicians playing together discordantly. When the confusion has sufficiently escalated, 'Director' appears in sunglasses, tie and hawaian shirt and yells, 'CUT!!!'. The Cutter of the Three Fates appears and abruptly cuts all the threads from web to audience. Sudden blackness and silence, from which emerges the sound of the spinning of the Spinner's spinning wheel...
Live music by Orryelle, Alex, Kelly, Zoid as 'The Harlequintet'. Pre-recorded music by Stuart.
Metamorphic Ritual Theatre Company has also performed visuals at several Mutation Parlour gigs: -firstly at the Toonumbah Festival (northern N.S.W.) '95, weaving webs around the stage. At New Years Confest '96/'97 the two groups fully merged in an aural/visual performance about clockwork/clockplay, eventually breaking down into the Dreamtime, inwhich performers Zen and Kia spiralled into the centre of a medicine wheel beside the stage, where they performed a chakra-piercing ritual in the centre.
Photographs below from performances of Loom of Lila Ritual Dance Theatre in UK (Edinburgh Fringe & London) and Italy (Modena, Rome, Tuscany, Palermo) in late 2006 now up, along with those from the original Melbourne production.
This was the first time several (4) Australian members of the MetaMorphic Ritual Theatre Co. have travelled and performed together in more than one locale, so it was a rare opportunity for Europeans to see more than a solo show.
Loom of Lila is available as an hour-long fully-edited video on the DVD accompanying Orryelle's book 'A Brief HirStory of TimEmiT fo yrotSriH feirB A' from iNSPiRALink. MultiMedia PRESS
'LOOM of LILA' Ritual Dance Performance
(2006) UK PERFORMANCES:
18th and 22nd August @ The Forest Cafe Edinburgh. Fringe of the Fringe.
While there we also created a new Fringe of the International Book Festival much to the consternation of the less-theatrically-minded organizers of the main festival, who disapproving of Giselle's book-dress (above) and our antics were thus told to, 'Keep it under the covers. Do not take your literature literally, do not embody the Word...'
8th September (full mooon) London @ The Speaker Palace
With ORGONAUTIC (Germany), ORCHAStra-ted ChAOS (Australia/UK/Germany improvisational collaboration), CHORONZON MACHINE film screening and Silver Dusk art exhibition.
2006 ITALY PERFORMANCES:
16th September near Modena:
Circolo Arci "Discarica"
Reggio Emilia
23:23
In addition to Loom of Lila we performed an improvisational set of live music and dance (above left), with Giselle appearing as the Black Madonna (above right) for our Italy debut.
Photos by Marc'Aurelio
With D.B.P.I.T. Post-Industrielle Trumpeter
Loom of Lila was the first MetaMorphic Ritual Theatre Production that relies solely on visuals, sound and movement to convey its concepts. There was no dialogue or words in English; rather the ideas expressed through Dance, Film, Sound, Sculpture and Installation.
The performance -which was in intensive development since Feb '06- expressed in form and movement the relationship of the individual to the collective, exploring also concepts of microcosm and macrocosm, the nature of Deification, and the dichotomy of Fate versus Free Will...
The documentation of the live ritual dance together with the pre-created effected filmwork (initially for projection in the performance) have been compiled with other MetaMorphic Ritual Theatre material into a 2-hour DVD available with the new revised edition of Orryelle's book on Time, Fate and Spider Magicks,
'A Brief HirStory of TimEmiT fo yrotSriH feirB A', which was launched at the second show of Loom of Lila and is available online HERE.
The hands of the statue contain figures (fingers as legs) -image below- a concept which is applied kinetically in the film and live dance.
11 dancers together form the face (above -as inspired by an image of Dali's, and left- dancers performing the Sufi drum-breath in face formation) and hands of a giant Kali-Arachne figure, a composite deity representing both the multi-armed creator-destroyer Mother Goddess of the Hindu pantheon, and Arachne as a spider-being who weaves the connections between microcosm and macrocosm and also the threads of Fate/Destiny (as a unification of the Greek Three Fates or Moerae who as Spinner Weaver and Cutter of life's thread are also arachnean in nature).
Dancers break away and individuate, only to find they are still a part of the whole, but influencing as well as being influenced by it...
The CHORONZON MACHINE Ritual Opera is NOW A FILM. The original footage from the already spectacular live production has been edited and enhanced with effects, animations, and diverse studio-recorded music.
The first ever feature-length (80 mins) film of a MetaMorphic Ritual Theatre Production.
Above: Stills from the Melbourne Launch of
SilKMilK s p o o l # 3
For more stills from the Melbourne and London launches CLICK HERE
Synopses of & Images from some Metamorphic Ritual Theatre Productions (from most recent to earliest) :
PARZIVAL: The FOOL's JOURNEY
in Glastonbury, UK, June Solstice 2005.
Click on still above for more new pictures, video and text from this recent production.
The FEAST of VALHALLA
-The Fool's Journey at Montsalvat
' -Come, O mortals, Cross the Rainbow Bridge from Midgard to Valhalla, beCome your wode-self, and feast with the Gods!'
Click on image at right for many photos, verse & video from this special one-off event at the beautiful MONSALVAT Medieval Village and Arts Centre in Eltham, celebrating the Imbolc (Sabbat Festival of the Celtic Fire-Goddess Bridgit) full mooon 2004.
Guests/in-it-I-ates followed the Holy Fool Parzival on his quest for the Holy Grail around the grounds and chapel before being transported to the Great Hall of Valhalla for more music, merriment and wyrd theatricks around the feasting tables.
This Productions was a part of... :
The RAINBOW BRIDGE/RAINBOW SERPENT Performance Project
This is an ongoing project linking the Germanic/Norse mythologies Metamorphic Ritual Theatre have been exploring in recent years with the Rainbow Serpent energies of the company's homeland of Australia. The Rainbow Bridge of the Norse mythos, 'Bifrost' traditionally spans between the realm of the Gods ('Asgard') and the realm of mortal humans ('Midgard'). This link is exactly what Metamorphic Ritual Theatre engages with, as we invoke (rather than just 'act') divine archetypes into our mortal selves.
In this International Performance Project we explore the added dimension of linking the dreamings of different lands and cultures, with performances on opposite sides of the World incorporating elements of each other to bridge them. The Dreamtime land 'downunder' is translated into German as 'der Underwelt' (the Underworld) and a new angle is given on the Norse dreaming -For the full story of my revelations regarding this and related rites and performances see my
'Descent from the Down UnderWorld' true Tale of Wyrd.
Video and Audio documentation of performances in the northern hemisphere are being incorporated into live performances in the southern hemisphere, and vice versa, and verse vica, creating a continuum linking this axis.
To see a short video from 'Le Pendu' (Melbourne June 1st 2004) incorporating these ideas, go through the Well of reMembrance image at left.
'DerGehangte from Down Under' / 'Le Pendu' and '8 Gates' (below) form the nexus of this cycle -reflecting through the Well of remembrance- with performances in Austria and England in 2003 now feeding back into new works (see 'Le Pendu' below) in Australia, with the imminent FEAST of VALHALLA spectacle drawing together the Tarot and Norse threads of our work...
Further developments in Scandinavian and Germanic countries in 2007 are currently being negotiated (any interested hosts or venues please email odxob@yahoo.com)
'Le Pendu' ('The Pendulum')
-1st Performance June 1st 2004at LaMama Theatre (Melbourne Australia), with another short play 'MeduZeus' (see below)
-Second Performance as a part of The Feast of VALHALLA at Montsalvat medieval village, Eltham (Vict.) on August 1st (Imbolc full mooon) '04
3rd Performance -with 8 GATES (below) @ FACTORY 1, Abbotsford, Melbourne.
October 23rd '04.
'I See your future' ... ... ... 'I Saw your past'
'I See you rise'
... ... ... 'I Saw you Fall...'
'Le Pendu' (the old French name for the Hanged Man tarot trump) See-Saws twixt Future (the Norn 'Skuld') and Past (the Norn 'Urd'), and twixt Thought (the raven Hugin, pictured on piano-accordian above) and Memory (the raven Munin), the Present (the Norn 'Verdanthi') as the fulcrum.
This piece is an extension of 'The Hanged Man aus der Underwelt' performance (below), playing with the relationship of divine and mortals self/s through timemit hguorht as Odin hung upon the World Tree sways and swings betwixt various polarities above andna woleb the Well of reMembrance, while his mortal reflection (the performer Orryelle) explores '8 GATES' in the Well below andna evoba
This production is a part of the ongoing RAINBOW BRIDGE Performance Cycle (see 'Le Pendu' VIDEO link in the Well above)
Black and White photographs by Kylee.
Video stills from the Launch of Orryelle's BOOK of KAOS Tarot. More images from this performance HERE
The script and pictures of the version of Le Pendu @ The Feast of Valhalla can now be read and viewed HERE
8 GATES (and 9 Worlds):
First performance (then untitled) in Melbourne Australia
(Carlton Courthouse Theatre March Equinox 03) with "Emit fo yrotsreH feirB A" (see below).
2nd performance Edinburgh, Scotland (Cabaret Voltaire May 03)
3rd performance London, England (Vertigo Cinema July 03)
4th Performance in Vienna, Austria (Lalish Theatrelab, 12th Sept 03) -photograph below copyright (c)Chris Miller
5th Performance Melbourne Australia (Carlton Courthouse Nov 03)
6th Performance Melbourne Australia -Carlton Courthouse Theatre, MAY 10th 2004
7th Performance with Le PENDU (above) @ FACTORY 1, Abbotsford, Melbourne.
October 23rd '04.
8th Performance Bath, UK @ The OMPHALOS MAGICKAL FAIR -followed by a group ritual workshop of the 8 Gates Pathworking. Beltaine May '05.
An hour-long (approx.) solo piece which is part short play, part shamanic Underworld journey, concerning past lives, atavistic resurgence, mists, ravens and the density of matter.
Using hypnotic repetition
and hceeps sdrawkcab Orryelle begins by taking the
audience/initiates into trance and guiding
them through a path-working to access past lives.
He then cuts to dramatically relating some of his own
experiences with this journey-work, choreographing
this tale onto a spider-web mandala used to ritually
access 8 Gates of experience.
Shards and fragments of different lives and selves
(inc. a Norse viking, a sabertooth tiger and a fly
agaric mushroom) eventually link back up in a complex
mosaic of non-linear relativity resolved in a paradox
of profound absurdity/ absurd profundity.
This piece is also another noitcelfeR of 'Der
Gehangte from Down Under' (see synopsis below), in
that it is the mortal Orryelle's journeys within the
Well of ReMEMbrance which the invoked Wode-self of his
previous performance peers into -the raven-borne Eye
being the link betwixt the Nine Worlds.
Thus the new version performed at the Carlton Courthouse Theatre on May 10th 2004 contained added 'Der Gehangte' video footage performance projected as the surface of the Well of reMembrance Odin hangs above/woleb (click on image at left for sample video)
CLICK ON IMAGE above for a sample of some of this Video Material
This production is a part of the ongoing RAINBOW BRIDGE Performance Cycle (see above)
'MeduZeus/BaphoMetis'
1st Performance SilKMilK MagiZain s p o o l #2 LAUNCH (Melbourne Australia).
2nd Performance Easter Confest (NSW, Australia) 2004
3rd Performance June 1st at LaMama Theatre (Melbourne Australia -bookings), with 'Le Pendu' (see above)
-A short Neo-Classical play with Greek Gods in contemporary contexts, concerning the integration of the primal feminine into the psyche, devised and performed by Tesssa Watson & Orryelle Defenestrate.
The Patriarch Zeus (left) berates the crowd, telling them that it has come to his attention that 'mere mortals' such as they have been meddling with the new holographic technologies developed by Mt.Olympus incorporated, and tells of the punishment of 'a young punk known as Prometheus' for daring to pirate these new technologies.
The Wisdom Goddess Metis (below) challenges His authority until Zeus flies into a rage and (with live percussion thundering) swallows Her in his swirling cape.
Zeus then proceeds to delineate what a woman should be like, until He projects from the front of His head (conscious mind) the Goddess of Civilization, Athena (right). She assists Zeus in the re-ordering of his Kingdom, but after she exits His headache worsens, until... 
...eventually Medusa bursts out the back of His head (subconscious mind).
More images from the first performance of MeduZeus and an extended synopsis on the SilKMilK 2 page
Der Gehangte from Down Under/The Hanged Man aus Der Unterwelt
Originally Performed at 'Les Orts' Literature Festival Nov 2002 in Nurnberg, Bavaria.
Later Adapted for New Year 2oo3 performance at Confest festival, NSW, Australia, (photo at left) and Jan 2oo3 Exodus festival Tenterfield NSW Australia.
4th performance at Occulture Festival, Brighton UK, 19th July 2oo3. (photos below)
5th and 6th performances in Austria Sept. 2oo3. -Medieval Festival at a castle in Albrechtsberg, & The Arena in Vienna (photos below).
A short play about the Norse God Odin
hanging from the World Tree and discovering the runes.
Odin hangs by one ankle in the classic Tarot
Arcana XII posture (from a real tree where possible)
with
the Raven Hugin (Thought) in the branches 'below' (above!) and the Raven Munin (MEMory) in the Well 'above' (seen with Norns below), reflecting each other with sound and movement.
After sacrificing outer sight for inner vision, Odin discovers the power of Logos and uses language
to formulate and project His Will, yet it is in the
Webs of the Three Norns (who in some performances are visible, in others implicate) or Fates who weave
their webs about the base of the World Tree that the
symbols are seen.
The work deals with the difference in male and female
apprehensions of language, and with the intricate relationship
between Will and Fate, resolving these apparent
dualities as Odin sacrifices outer sight to look deep
into the Well of ReMEMbrance.
The part-English part-German version of the play that
Orryelle will be performing in Austria in Sept. 2oo3 has an
added layer of reflective properties due to linguistic
and geographical polarities between Germanic lands and
the writer's homeland Australia.
The Script of this version is printed in SilK MilK MagiZain s p o o l #1
There is also an element of physical theatre as Odin
is pulled into different rune postures (from Jan Fries` "Helrunar", Mandrake of Oxford `93) by the Norns' threads while inverted...
These threads were etheric in earlier productions (below left) but in a Vienna performance physical threads were attached to fresh piercings in Odin's wrists and ankle (below right).
above -Occulture Brighton UK performance (left); Vienna Austria performance (right) -for more images (and account) from this performance CLICK HERE
'EMIT fo YROTSREH FEIRB A'
1st Performance @ Cape Lounge Cafe/Bar (Melbourne)
-Friday 21st March EquinoXuliuqE 2oo3.
-for the Launch of the Book also called 'EMIT fo YROTSREH FEIRB A'
-with support musical performances by Wendy Rule, Kara Lamia, Phoebe and Carmen.
2nd Performance @ The Carlton Courthouse Theatre, together with `8 Gates` (then untitled) solo semi-improvisational piece by Orryelle -see above.
- Moonday the 31st of March 2oo3
3rd Performance (extracts only) Outdoors @ Easter Confest Festival, Echuca
-Eostre Sunday 20th April 2oo3.
Left: The 3 Fates in Arachnean formation.
Right: Phoebe as Lachesis, the Weaver/Mother/Full Moon.
Transmitted verses of, 'The Book of the Spider' -Orryelle's independent and congruent apprehension of the astral grimoire also explored by Kenneth Grant -were adapted to dance, mudra and music (violin, cello, female choir, orchestral and eastern percussion), choreographed ritually upon an 8-rayed veve mandala. An adaptation of Orryelle's lunar adoration Liber QOPH vel HECATE was also included, along with other musical and ritual-theatrical expressions of Time and Fate.
More photographs from the Performances HERE
More Information about the Book onwhich it was based HERE
THE WILD HUNT Samhain Sabbat.
18th Oct. 2002, 491 Gallery Leytonstone, London UK
THE DIONYSIAN UNDERGROUND Grapevine and THE ART ORGANISATION, in collaboration with Australia's METAMORPHIC RITUAL THEATRE Company and Scotland's HUMAN PRODUCT presented a night of orgiastic communion with the Spirit Worlds - the WILD HUNT Bacchanalia, a traditional and Dionysiac Samhain Sabbat adapted to today's technological context.
After a multicultural musical elemental circle-casting and Electrified Swordfight reconciling Old World Magic and Modern Technology (based on WEBSIGHT Exhibition performance), acoustic percussion and electronica converged into a night blending the ancient tradition of the Witches Sabbat and a modern magickal dance party.
With the Sex Priestessses of the Bauwder Orryelle danced psychotropic plants and their spirits into the cauldron, producing some real flying ointment then distributed to the crowd, while we supposited this Vinum Sabbati with greased broomsticks as in the Sabbatic tradition.
(Click on Wild Hunt Sigil below for further video stills and poetry from the event.)
The CHORONZON MACHINE
Photos (c)2001 Saskia Folk
Oct 31st (Beltaine Full Moon), Nov 2nd, 3rd 2001
Carlton Courthouse Theatre, Melbourne, Vict., Australia.
A Multi-Media Multi-Cultural Multi-Subcultural Ritual Opera, this epic musical play followed the Fool's journey through the Major Arcana of the Tarot.
The audience operated the play via the 3.33c wooden coins which are collected to start each new scene of paired polar trump cards. The coins started the Tree of Life (interconnected spinning sephiroth Wheels) machine which generates the Play of form...
Music by 'The Harlequintet'.
The CHORONZON MACHINE was also the launch of the first (signed & limited) edition of Orryelle's BOOK of ChAOS Tarot Deck
'Arachne Ascendant' - a play about Arachne, a mortal weaver in Ancient Greece, and her weaving contest with the Goddess Athena, including poetry from Roman poet Ovid's 'Metamorphoses', culminating with her being turned into a spider. The second half of the play concerns Arachne's subsequent elevation to the stars, becoming the mysterious thirteenth sign of the zodiac and a lunar Goddess of fate and chaos.
Music by Alex, Kelly and Orryelle, an earlier incarnation of 'The Harlequintet'.
The full script of this play appears in IMPious Magazine#1.
'Paganini Invocation' - an open-ended necromantic performance ritual inwhich after taking audience through a shamanic trance journey with Romantic violinist Paganini and mythical consorts, Orryelle invokes the spirit of Paganini and plays his violin like never before.
Music by 'The Harlequintet'.
The semi-script of this play appears in IMPious Magazine #2.
Performed in a valley in Rosebank, northern N.S.W. on the Spring Equinox '94.
'Circe's Banquet' - 130 in-it-I-ates were invited to dine, becoming Oddysseus's crew as the drama unfolded both around them and on the stage as viewed through a cracking Magick Mirror; eventually being transformed into beasts (they had been asked to bring an animal mask or totem) as the play culminated.
Click HERE for the illustrated script of this play.
Music by 'The Harlequintet'.
performed/ consume-ate-d at St. Andrews Hall, Vict., on the May full moon, '95.
'The Gods Made Flesh' - Audience are given balls of thread by the Spinner of the Three Fates at her spinning wheel as they enter the theatre. The play begins with a stark industrial 'rape of Gaia' scene, afterwhich Orryelle invokes Kokopelli, the North American Indian incarnation of the Horned God, and dances with the burden basket of the woes of the world.
performed at La Mama theatre, Carlton, Vict., on 23rd & 24th Oct., '95.
'Mutating Mythos' - The stage was split between microcosm -the Alchemist's Workshop with glass bubbles and tubes- and the macrocosm -the World Tree and the Well of Remembrance. Interplay occurred between these two areas -e.g. the Alchemist swung a small pendulum in his workshop while I swung upside-down by one foot from the branches of the World Tree as Odin- as the drama progressed through the different alchemical stages of black, white/colours and red with appropriate sound, lighting and symbolic birds.
The end of the play concerned the fusion of ancient mythology and modern technology.
Live music by the Harlequintet, pre-recorded music by Mutation Parlour.
performed twice at La Mama Theatre around Feb '95
Aspects of this performance and of M.R.T.'s first production, 'Arachne Ascendant', were merged in a Mutation Parlour-Metamorphic Ritual Theatre show at 'Club Bacchanal', The Kirk, Sydney, N.S.W., on Friday the 13th, June '97. This performance saw the advent of the 'chaos clock' -a device incorporating wheels from the Spinning Chamber of the Labyrinth- which has since been developed and mechanised by Nygir for the Carnival Saturnalia.
'Crossroads' performance at 'Span', a music/spoken word event as part of the Next Wave Festival, on the 24th of May. I orated the words of the CROSSROADS Cross-section poem as I laid them (written on large pieces of paper) out in a cross on the floor; while various multi-cultural and multi-subcultural musician characters fil(l)ed in(the)formation as I went, until as at the axis of this site, where 'Here' crosses 'Now' all merged into a sometimes harmonious, sometimes discordant juxtaposition of Order and Chaos. Most of these strange characters had never even met before, let alone performed together, thus reflecting the festival's theme of 'Distance'.
It is my fervent Will as Spell-ed out during this ritual that the virtual Crossroads too continues to break down distances, developing as a nexus-axis of cross-cultural and cross-subcultural communications, as the new dream-maps emerge...
PENTAGRAMMATON Chakra piercing/ quantum qabbala rituals, aligning the Chakras, as the main system of the East, with the Tree of Life/Qabbala, the main esoteric tradition of the West, and incorporating elements of other ancient cultures in a post-modern context of Chaos Magick involving Horus, Maat and Pan Currents of magick.
Melbourne Fringe Festival, Full Moon (5th) and Dark Moon (20th) Oct.98.
Shunyata Awarehouse, Fitzroy.
On the full moon Five Elemental Initiates had each of their chakras pierced progressively upwards from base to crown, while costumed sephirothic birds danced for their corresponding chakras then assumed their perches upon a 3D model of The Tree of Life.
On the following dark moon the Five Elemental Initiates were woven together with thread through the jewellery retained in the chakra piercings from Part I, from crown to base down into manifestation, with birds dancing for their corresponding sephira as they left the Tree of Life.
Click HERE for script fully illustrated with drawings and photographs from the production.
Pentagrammaton Photos by Ben Last
Images (except where otherwise credited) and Text (c) 2007 Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule