Natalie Allen and HotHouse Company Present IN CRIMSON, a New Immersive Dance Theatre Work

Performances run 12-16 July 2022.

By: Jun. 16, 2022
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Natalie Allen and HotHouse Company Present IN CRIMSON, a New Immersive Dance Theatre Work

Poe's short story tells of Prince Prospero fleeing to his castellated abbey to escape from the Red Death, a plague that is spreading rapidly throughout the village. He invites noblemen to join him to retreat from the plague. They survive for months, so the prince decides to host a masquerade ball to celebrate their continuing existence, but at the stroke of midnight, death arrives, and they all fall dead to the Red Death.

Natalie states, "I love how Poe's story is so relevant, it holds up a mirror to our current lives in the lingering Covid-19 pandemic. How the world became disconnected, our desire to connect, share intimacy and the loss of what we knew has been destabilising and transformative. I really want to honour this current time and acknowledge the individual experience of life, of death, and how we all individually come to terms with our finite end. That we can be the phoenix rising out of the ashes."

The 55-minute IN CRIMSON journey features ten emerging artists, all WAAPA graduates, and original music composition by Pavan Hari. The strength of dance is its hyperreal and surreal nature through the body expressing what words cannot. The words used in the work convey strong meaning and extra information about the characters back story, events of the ball and the themes and ideas encapsulated within Poe's story.

IN CRIMSON is an adaptation and evolution of the work Stained in Crimson Natalie created for LINK Dance Company in 2020. Seven out of the ten emerging artists were in the original theatre production, all very keen and inspired to continue to evolve the show, developing their own skills as performing artists and makers, under the direction of Natalie. The project has centred itself around professional development, international borders were closed, making the opportunity to travel for skill development difficult.

Another unique and exciting facet of IN CRIMSON is the collaboration with the students and staff of All Saints College (ASC) in creating the set design. ASC students will experience firsthand collaboration with a professional production and be interwoven into the creation process, their art displayed within the show.

"HotHouse Company is thrilled to continue our long-standing creative partnership with Natalie Allen through IN CRIMSON said its Director Drew Mayhills. This work is the third Natalie has presented at the college."

Natalie is very grateful to have been supported by the college for some years now, "I feel that as IN CRIMSON honours the individual experience of life, death and birth, I wanted to create a community around the creation of the work. This is an amazing opportunity to interweave the arts community with the next generation of thinkers and creators," she said.

Drew Mayhills stated, "Natalie's vision to completely re-imagine one of our flagship buildings as an immersive dance theatre work is an ambitious and exciting one. The last few years have been particularly challenging for the Arts sector, and IN CRIMSON will be one of our premier events this year as we re-activate our programming.

"While there has been no shortage of innovative responses and pivots to digital to keep things going, there's really no substitute for experiencing the Arts in-person. IN CRIMSON will be a fitting reminder of this when an intimate audience is immersed within the universe of Natalie's imagination. At All Saints' College, we believe that the Arts is fundamentally about connection - HotHouse Company connects students to artists, artists to opportunities and audiences to unique experiences. With these principles in mind, IN CRIMSON is a perfect collaborative fit for us.

"We are very much looking forward to challenging our audience's understanding of what kinds of artistic projects can be realised in unconventional spaces and cannot wait to welcome audiences to the College to experience IN CRIMSON."

Natalie is delighted to bring this work to life, "This is my most ambitious work to date and the level of collaboration and bringing a community together to connect is very exciting for me and the creative team. I cannot wait for audiences to share in this deep process and the surreal world of IN CRIMSON," she said.

Audiences are invited into the surreal world of IN CRIMSON, a hint into the lives of ten character's journeys to their finite end. A play into the masks we wear to survive and the de-masking of ourselves to thrive. It asks the question what type of end of times party would you have?

Life isn't a dress rehearsal and IN CRIMSON will be a bold, extravagant, surreal adventure to reflect, reconsider, play and dream.

Creative Team

Creator & Choreographer: Natalie Allen

Dancers: Estelle Brown, Gabrielle De Vriese, Keely Geier, Allain Gumapon, Isabelle Leclezio, Natassija Morrow, Brent Rollins, Ada Sayasane, Nathan Turtur, Lucy Wong

Producer: Jessica Russell

Production Manager: Tracey Shaw

Sound Design/Music Composition: Pavan Hari

Set Design: All Saints' College students in collaboration with Natalie Allen, Brock Preston and Tracy Shaw

Dates: 12-16 July 2022

Preview: 12 July , 6pm

13-16 July 6pm & 8pm

Duration: 55 Minutes

Location: Building 8, All Saints' College, Ewing Ave, Bull Creek

Tickets: www.trybooking.com

IN CRIMSON is proudly supported by the Department of Local Government Sport and Cultural Industries, HotHouse Company, Propel Youth Arts and Momentum Performing Arts Academy.




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