SEARCHLIGHT

Murder
Erth Visual & Physical Inc.

Venue: Piano Bar
When: Wed 29 Feb 09:45 AM - 10:45 AM
Genre: Physical Theatre / Circus / Puppetry
Main Audience: Adults (18+)
No. in touring party: 9

Murder

Murder is the ultimate taboo – yet it’s slashed and splashed across every surface of our culture, in folklore, fantasy and fiction. The Bible, classical tragedy, Shakespeare, film noir, cop shows, murder ballads, multiplayer gaming environments… How will I kill thee? Let me count the ways.

Does this fascination betray some kind of death wish? Or a lust for life, a laughing in the face of death?

This is the territory explored in Murder: a visceral new work by visual theatre magicians Erth, inspired by and drawing on Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads, combining puppetry, live performers and digital projection.

Welcome to the scene of the crime. A sinister yet compelling figure holds sway: interrogator, confessor and master of ceremonies, telling of The Curse of Millhaven, The Kindness of Strangers, of Stagger Lee and Nellie Brown and Billy Dilly – conjuring into life the figures of Cave’s dark world of love and lust and death.

Like the Ancient Mariner’s wedding guests, you can only listen, as he recounts the darkest secrets of his childhood, the death of his mother, and the cruelty of that murderer God. Or will you be judge? Jury? Executioner?

Erth Visual & Physical Inc.

Erth bring the impossible to life. Over 21 years, the company has developed a truly fantastic aesthetic with unique visual theatre works. The company regularly tours internationally, to every major Australian festival, and to regional and major city venues around the country. More than a million people have seen its dinosaurs in performance works such as Dinosaur Petting Zoo, and in museums.

Erth’s work ranges from large scale interactive environments, such as The Garden, a prehistoric landscape inhabited by giant insects which premiered at the Melbourne International Festival of Arts, to more intimate in-theatre works. Dinosaur Petting Zoo has toured through Australia and overseas for four years and is now joined by I, Bunyip, and its cast of Australian Indigenous spirit creatures and their stories, touring nationally June to September 2012.

The company has also been commissioned by major museums including The Australian Museum, Auckland Museum, Powerhouse Museum (Sydney), The Field Museum (Chicago) and the Natural History Museum (Los Angeles). Its design studio has built for a huge range of cultural institutions and commercial clients, from Sydney Opera House and City of Sydney, to the primetime Spanish television program, El Hormiguero.

Erth is based at Sydney’s CarriageWorks contemporary arts centre.

Photo: Erth - Visual & Physical Inc.