New Music-Theatre for five performers and film
Collaborative project between Zachar Laskewicz and Anouk De Clercq
Introduction
This is a new music-theatre composition which has five female performers interacting with one another, the film, instruments and recorded sound on tape, both of their own voices and pre-recorded music. It forms as a whole a twelve-part polyphony of sound, action, text, music and movement. The Lair of the Spider-Women is a complex multimedial composition with
many contrasting themes, some of which are described below.
It uses as a foundation point the image of the undead ‘brides’ of Dracula who wait eternally in his crypt beneath the earth. What do they do when the imposing male figure is not there? Would they endlessly wander the tombs awaiting his return? We think not. Instead, in this music-theatre composition, these figures become vital living representations of primeval strength. Themes which return during the course of the work are that of the ritual as vivid means of female communion, the cyclical relationships between a woman, her body and blood (menstruation), and fear and angst women have of themselves and men have of woman. Here the image of the ‘penetrating’ woman, using sharp teeth instead of a penis, penetrates sexually into the bodily flesh of another, drawing blood, reducing the victim of any power they may have made: the man is made impotent by the penetrating female vampire.
These themes hide other more delicate and dangerous taboos which must not be lightly dealt with. Female strength has for thousands of years been
silenced by men who have felt threatened through their incomprehension. This work is based on exploring horror, using as a basis the stereotypical scenes evoked in some lesser known films, but by exploring these themes to witness this type of horror, a metatheatre work is created in which issues are brought to light concerning the importance of the horror genre to the way people are influenced by their environment and what they expect from it. We are, very much, a product of what we fear, and in this composition we will be bringing some of these issues to light—having at the same time an enormously good time doing it.
Structure of composition
—Each
of the different following movements are not clearly divided: there is always at
least one performer who remains in the section which is preceding.
Part
1 :
The Awakening
—The
opening image is that of dracula’s wives waiting in the cellar.
—The
first character awakens, perhaps via cue from the film, and thereafter proceeds
to act on the other vampires in a ritual fashion.
—Perhaps
this first vampire performs the act of blessing a vat of water wish is thrown
onto the vampires functioning to awaken them.
This is ritual act one.
—This
is echoed on film by relating the blessing of the holy WATER with an act of
PURIFICATION.
—As
the vampires awaken, they begin to perform movements on stage.
This is cued by vocal development on the pre-recorded tape and visual
imagery.
—Perhaps
as every vampire wakes, the shape disappears from the film imager.
—Opening
section shows a vista of fragments from the whole work, at least in the
fragmented movements of the women.
—Begins
with utters of horrifying words, especially adjectives:
vile,
disgust, terror, seething, horror, spasm, rip, tear, sear,
Part 2 :
The Consecration of the Space
—Using sacred sand, the performance place is
consecrated, initially by throwing sand in general and then by placing sand at
particular places. This is echoed
on the film by the construction of a circle which is marked by particular
points.
—Here FIRE is used as a filmic symbol which is
related to the lighting of the candles.
—The sand is TRANSCENDED into a new level of
being thanks to the function of FIRE.
Part 3 :
The malicious vagina
—This has one of the vampires representing
what men most fear. This is
represented filmically by a flesh-eating vagina.
—On
stage woman lies with her legs pulled apart (perhaps by two of the others)
Blood starts dripping from above (menstruatie), legs in opposite direction from the audience. On the video a man eating vagina: or a head emerges out of the vagina: horrific image, what all men fear, the flesh eating vagina. Vagina with teeth. One also thinks of giving birth and the pain evoked.
Part 4 :
The Construction of the Ritual Shape
—One of the awakened vampires performs the
function of anointing the holy space of the ritual with the holy water blessed
in part one.
—Other vampires move out of the central space
as this ritual occurs, although they keep up with their initial movements.
—A combination of FIRE and WATER is used to
create the shape of the spider goddess who will be evoked in the part six.
The shape is of a spider, but that is only represented on film.
On stage points of the shape are placed ritually.
Part 5 :
The Penetrating Women, the headless fuck
—Pieces
from lesbian vampire films. Discussing
the act of vampirism, the head-less fuck. In
a way contrasting to the malicious vagina.
—Possibly
passionate/possibly subtle lesbian interaction between two vampires
Lesbian scene has blood dripping on breasts, then taken over on film as chaos reers its ugly head.
Part 6 :
The Reading of the Text
—Use the vampire head in the dream from An
American Werewolf in London.
—Player 3 moves ritually to the stand
positioned just behind the ritualized shape to read the text.
The beginning of this section occurs when 2 and 4 have moved and picked
up instruments which were previously draped with sheets.
—Player
three reads in a guttural language, passages out of which will be used in
hysterical gesticulations later and also quoted on tape (perhaps from the
beginning and even during the recitation).
—On
the film, translation of text is demonstrated, perhaps echoed in English or some
of the words or sounds are echoed with visual imagery, perhaps of someone else
reading the text, or in polyphony with the same actor reading the text so that
it becomes a jumbled and confusing mixture of spoken word and mixed languages in
addition to gesticular sound.
—When
the performer leaves the altar positioned behind the circle a state of relative
cacophony has been reached which has the vampires uttering, gesticulating and
moving sparodically and (at least in appearance) chaotically.
Some element of similarity, such as jerked position from the hypnotic
post-climactic dance which are perhaps echoed on film.
Part 7 :
The Rite
—The
vampires move independently of one another, although a ritual chant results in
their coming together, becoming a powerful symbol of female power.
—Before
the lights go out at the end of the ritual build up, a trance-like repetition of
texts takes place, becoming louder and louder, chaos in the background (sounds),
and continually more and more spiders on the film.
This is the Mother-spider vampire goddess.
—Male
victim (singer) picked from the audience, is ritually sacrificed, becomes spider
goddess – transvestite – [?] relives and accompanies ritual, where the women
are moving slowly
Part 8 :
The Conclusion
—After
resuscitation of the male vampire (or female goddess who is represented
filmically, not necessarily by a male), the ritual chant dissipates and the
voices are taken over on the recording, leaving the vampires on the five points
of the circle performing a series of very slow movements, elegant, almost
Javanese like.
—This
is complex happening: discourse of sound, film, females vampires and male
vampires almost seem to go concurrently. Lighting
fades out very gradually and composition is finished.
—Female
vampires begin singing, but their singing is echoed on the recording by similar
voices. Perhaps atonal until one by
one the singers hear their whispering voice on tape on which they stop singing
an atonal note, which is picked up by an instrument or a tonal voice on the tape
part. The ending is concurrent ,
but haunting.
—When the male character enters, the lights have already dissipated to nothing. This happens suddenly at the end of the ritual event. He comes and lies in the middle of the circle.
The following actions may also take place
polyphonically on stage and/or film:
—The construction of an effigy from sticks and
string. The film could show the
shape, or it all could be represented on film.
—Each
vampire has a [short] story to tell, although the longest text is read by
performer 3 which is accompanied musically by the other performers.
—Perhaps
during an attack the vampires attack members of the audience, hypnotically
convincing them and then orgiastically sucking them dry.
—Incense
is lighted before or during the performance at three to five different places on
stage.
Musical
and Theatrical Structure
—During
the reading, performer 2 and 4 are performing violin and flute respectively,
which is picked up by the tape as the ritual begins to occur around the ritual
structure centre-stage.
—There
are a number of different expressions which the vampires can individualise.
These expressions are made up of certain sounds and certain emotional
states. A list is included below of
these sounds and movements, standing still or moving forward, standing, sitting
or crawling. A single name is
applied to each one.
(1)
The
Hunger
(2)
Gasping
for breath
(3)
Near
orgasmic excitement
(4)
Animal-like
crawling
(5)
The
sacrifice
(6)
The
desperation
(7)
The
vampire attack
—Music
cycle at the end involves the tenor singing slow melody in time with movement.
—Polyphony
of 12 lines:
(i)
film
(ii)
– (vi) actors/dancers/musicians on stage
(vii)
– (xi) voices on tape
(xii)
synthesizer
Lair of the Spider Women
is a new music-theatre composition created as part of a three-part work known as:ABYSMAL RITES:
a Trilogy of Terror
Three compositions by Zachar Laskewicz
Composed and Produced by the Nachtschimmen Theatre Collective
© Zachar Laskewicz, April 2000.
COMPOSITIONS
