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silvermoon-scrolls · 1 year

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New Year’s Resolutions

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys/Xena: Warrior Princess

Wordcount: 1000 Rating: G, silly Warning: None, except that it's written in a very 90's fanfic kind of way

Timeline: Takes place shortly after the Christmas specials, A Star To Guide Them in H:TLJ and A Solstice Carol in X:WP, though that's not particularly important. Also on AO3

It was the night of New Year's Eve, and the light of the full moon fell upon a hill where four friends had gathered. Gabrielle took her eyes from the stars she'd been watching and turned to face the two men. "So, what have you guys been up to this past year?"

Iolaus shrugged. "You know, the usual."

"Like what?"

Hercules exchanged a knowing smile with his friend and decided to go first. "Well, I got to be a spirit for a day."

"And I got to be purple," the lighter man put in.

"I played a prince."

"And I a king."

"I almost got killed as I was swallowed by a sea-serpent, for the second time."

"And I did get killed, for the third time."

The younger woman exchanged a look with Xena. "A-ha, that 'usual'."

"How 'bout you, what have you been up to?" Iolaus asked, eyes dancing with mirth.

"Well, I don't wanna brag," the dark warrior said with a smug smile, "but we died, too."

"Really?! Your first?" Iolaus' voice revealed his somewhat unnatural excitement for the topic.

"Yeah. Hey, did you also feel that, hm..." the bard stopped to search for the right word, "-tingle? You know, just before that, uhm, ‘whooshing’ sensation?"

"Yes! I know exactly what you mean! I've been wondering-”

"A-hum, excuse me." Hercules tried to get the attention of the two enraptured blondes. "Can't we find a more pleasant subject to talk about?" he asked uncomfortably.

"Ha, you're just jealous 'cause you never died," Iolaus informed him with a wink.

Hercules rolled his eyes and ignored his friend. "Did you perhaps do anything else? Besides dying?"

Gabrielle tapped a finger against her lip. "We did became bacchaes for a while," she said after some thinking.

"And I'm only just recovered from a body-exchange with Callisto," Xena offered.

"Sounds like you've been kind of busy, you too," Iolaus stated with a grin.

There was a short silence while the foursome in good humor contemplated the nature of their unusual lives.

"Do you think it's a new year yet?" the bard asked after a while.

Iolaus looked up at the moon. "Hard to tell, but I guess now's as good a time as any."

They all exchanged warm smiles and in unison wished each other a happy new year.

"So, any New Year's resolutions?" Gabrielle wanted to know.

"Well, Herc and I decided to make up each other’s resolutions this year." Iolaus turned to his friend, beaming with excitement. "So, what do I got?"

Hercules smiled before answering. "To stay out of trouble."

"And you expect me to keep that?" The hunter sounded beyond doubtful.

"For a whole year? Of course not. But I was hoping for maybe a week or two."

"I'll do my best,” Iolaus snorted. Then his eyes lit up and he broke out into a broad grin. “And as for your resolution, you should flirt more." He winked at his friend. “No strings attached, just harmless flirting.” Putting his hand against his chest he added sagely, “It’s good for the soul you know.”

The demigod sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "I can't believe I didn't see that one coming.”

“Oh c’mon, Hercules.” Gabrielle tried elbowing the demigod lightly in the ribs, which had about the same outcome as if she’d elbowed a stone wall. “It’s fun.” As if to demonstrate she did an exaggerated wink at Iolaus who grinned and waggled his eyebrows in return.

Ignoring the two blondes who seemed to have launched into a pantomime involving increasingly ridiculous and flirtatious behavior, Hercules turned to his more mature companion. “Xena, how 'bout you? Have you got any New Year's resolution?"

"No," she stated firmly, not taking her scowling eyes off the laughing blondes.

"I could be wrong, but I’m guessing Gabrielle's the one doing most of the household work, isn't she? Maybe you could promise to, I don't know, cook twice a week? Something like that," Hercules suggested, ever on the quest for a more fair and equal world.

The tall woman opened her mouth to reply, but her friend was faster. "I thought a New Year's resolution was supposed to do good, not food poison you."

Xena chose to ignore the younger woman. "I could promise to do the laundry more often, that's as far as I'll go."

"Actually, washing our clothes is the one thing you do help with, and you're not very good at it. I don't understand how you manage to shrink my top every single time."

"It's not that hard."

"What?"

"I said, neither do I."

Gabrielle looked suspiciously at the warrior princess, but the tall woman acted as if she didn't notice. "So, what's your resolution then?" she asked sweetly.

"I haven't been able to come up with anything good," the bard answered regrettably.

"You know, if you travel with Xena, you ought to learn how to defend yourself." Iolaus didn't see the two women exchange a private smile. "If you want to, I can teach you how to use that stick for more than walking," he offered.

"Thank you, I would love that,” Gabrielle answered somewhat exaggeratedly. “Hey, why don't we have our first lesson right now?"

"Sure, why not?" the blond man said with an oblivious smile as he followed the bard a few paces away from Xena and Hercules.

"I had this 'stick'," Gabrielle smiled at the word, "for some time now, and I already picked up a few things. Mind if I show you before we start?"

"Of course not. Go ahead."

The young woman started twirling the staff elegantly through the air around her. Iolaus just stared in shocked surprise. "You know, I think there's something I forgot to mention earlier when we discussed the previous year," she said with a soft voice.

"U-huh." Iolaus still couldn't believe his eyes. Suddenly he felt his feet being swept off the ground, and he landed on this back with a thud.

Gabrielle held her staff against the surprised man's throat. "I'm an amazon princess now."

The hunter called out to his friend, but his eyes never left the staff. "Herc, I think I just broke my New Year's resolution."

~The End

January 2002

#fanfic #hercules the legendary journeys #xena warrior princess #hercules #iolaus #xena #gabrielle #xena fanfiction #my stuff

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alatismeni-theitsa · 4 years

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What are some comedic/ funny cultural jokes that happen Greece (kinda like what are some popular memes or sayings \\ like how in the US we say vine references as jokes)?

Omg I was hoping to get this question!! We are very in touch with US memes and we use American memes and sayings very often. About Greek memes, we mostly make them out of Greek classic series and trashy shows.

We have a show with a host called Anita Pania and “every nut from all kinds of nut trees” (aka weird people) go there. Appearances there include:

the “Star of Sage”

the “Just Love” man

the woman who passionately sung “Cobra, you are a Cobra!”

and many more.

The face of Anita while watching people like these talk is priceless!

There is another show («Ευτυχείτε») with Katerina Kainouriou as hostess. It’s famous for women calling to have their problems solved. These stories are usually crazy scenarios like “I am pregnant and the father of the child is the father of my husband” etc. We make fun of those stories and also with the crazy astrologist, Mara Meimaridi, who tries to help those women. She is a scammer and delusional but her shade is epic!

We have videos from the Greek Big Brother show, where people had breakdowns about nothing. It’s truly a treasure of trash <3

The Classic series are mostly from the 90s and early 2000s. These include iconic characters from:

Τwo Strangers (Δυο ξένοι)

(Τhe Iconic Deny Markora with her big mouth and great burns)

Joy’s Cafe (Καφέ της Χαράς)

Fatseas, the (trying to be a) know-it-all villager.

Konstantino's and Eleni's (Κωνσταντίνου κι Ελένης)

He is a grumpy, overly conservative and narrow-minded Byzantinology professor with a surname of former Byzantine royals. He has written an unpublished book called "The Sewer System in Byzantium", which he regards as a masterpiece. Watch him go crazy for one of the sexiest Greek singers, Sakis Rouvas.

Peggy Karra, a completely talentless individual with a dream to become a famous actress. She constantly tries to grasp leading roles at various plays, especially ancient ones. (She brought Antigone and The Bacchae back to fashion with her trashy acting!) SHE IS THE WOMAN FROM MY BANNER :D

In the nick of time / Sto Para Pente (Στο Παρά Πέντε)

Zoumboulia "Zoumbi". When in danger, she often resorts to religion and when agitated, she emits a high-pitched "iiiii" sound, slaps her lap and sometimes faints. (Υοu can hear the iiiii in these compilations! (Link1) (Link2) )

Theopoula. A grandma suffering from senility due to multiple strokes, she has flashes of astounding insight and lucidity and does the craziest things. She hates her daughter-in-law for being short. Her most famous phrase is “Can sex ever be stopped???” while hitting drums.

Other stuff:

We have the category of memes “Ancient memes” where we put captions on ancient art and art pieces from all over the world.

The phrase “Good afternoon” was established to mean “sex” after the host of a PG-13 afternoon show shockingly said “good afternoon!” every time something sexual was on the screen.

You know how English people say “I need this advice for a friend, not me” or “My friend has this problem, not me”. We do it too and we are self concious about it, so we make fun of ourselves by saying “I don’t have this problem, a cousin from the village, you dont know her”

We are making fun of boomers who believe conspiracy theories and don’t know how to spell. (Iliteracy is a real problem. What we are making fun of is the confidence to post “scientific” nonsense) We immitate them by saying "the government sprays us with chemicals, the earth is flat1!one!1" with bad orthography.

In Greece there was a recent Saint/Prophet, (minor) St. Paisios. He had said something along the lines of “It will be like you live in peace but you won’t live in peace”. And so we take that phrase and alter it to fit the circumstances. For example, “It will be like Friday, but it won’t be really like Friday” - and we put an image of Paisios next to the quote :P

That’s the basic ones. Greeks have a rich (meme) culture so I couldn’t include everything. I will probably add more in reblogs later!

#answered #memes #greek culture #meme masterpost #greek memes #greek post #γρεεκ

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floweramonsworkshop · 4 years

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Persephone Tarot Card Deck

Hello everyone! So for as long as I can remember, I’ve been obsessed with Persephone and the mythology surrounding her. I would like to write stories about her someday, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. Right now I’m planning a different project, which you can probably discern from the title of the post. I would like to make a tarot deck (Major and Minor Arcana) using Persephones from different stories (movies, video games, shows, comics, ect).

I will be using a wide variety of adaptations and interpretations both popular and obscure, from ones I love a lot, to ones I’m indifferent or don’t care too much for, to ones I’ve only heard of (I’ll be sure to read/watch/play the thing before making the card so I can properly plan and decide). I was even planning on doing small write-ups in the description to compare each interpretation to each other and the original myth and give my personal opinion on different aspects (design, personality, agency, relationship with Hades/Demeter/others, ect)

I already have some interpretations picked, like Lore Olympus, Assassin’s Creed, Hadestown, The Goddess of Spring Silly Symphonies short, both Marvel and DC’s versions, the Percy Jackson movie, and others! But since I’m only one person and there’s only so much research I can do to try and fill out the deck (I have it mostly filled but there are still open slots), I thought I’d reach out to the Tumblr community and ask you all if you have any stories with Persephone in them that you could recommend? Depending on the amount of suggestions I get, I can’t guarantee I’ll add all suggestions, but I’d really appreciate any help people could offer ^_^

I will say that I’m trying to stick with media that has a clear visual for Persephone, like comics, games, or shows. So I probably won’t do books that only have texts descriptions (with admittedly a couple of exceptions on my part), so that’s something to keep in mind for suggestions.

I can add a list of what I have so far below the cut:

Possible Persephone Picks -Comics [ ] Afterburner: Tales of the Cool and the Wicked [ ] ARTIFAKT [ ] Awkward Hades [ ] DC Comics [ ] Demeter and Persephone: Spring Held Hostage [ ] Epicurus the Sage [ ] Flare [ ] Glory by Alan Moore [ ] God Is Dead [ ] Hades and Persephone Shorts by Gau meo [ ] Hades Holiday [ ] Headache [ ] Herakles [ ] A Hundred Days of Night [ ] The Last Bacchae [ ] Lore Olympus [ ] Marvel Comics [ ] My Husband Is Keeping Something From Me [ ] Olympians - Hades: Lord of the Dead [ ] Olympus Heights by Kevin Munroe [ ] Olympus Overdrive [ ] Once Upon a Time Machine [ ] Oracle by Olivier Peru [ ] Persephone by Allison Shaw [ ] Persephone by Loïc Locatelli-Kournwsky [ ] Persephone In Underland [ ] Punderworld [ ] Sandman [ ] Six by Megan Rose Gedris [ ] Theia Mania [ ] The Wicked + The Divine [ ] Weird War Tales -Books [ ] Little Goddess Girls [ ] Goddess Girls [ ] Myth-O-Mania [ ] Persephone by Clayton, Sally Pomme, Lee, Virginia [ ] Persephone and the Fruit of the Dead [ ] Persephone and the Pomegranate by Kris Waldherr [ ] Persephone and the Pomegranate Seeds by Maggi Moore [ ] Persephone and the Springtime -Theater [ ] Hadestown [ ] Jasper In Deadland [ ] Mythic The Musical [ ] Stravinsky Ballet -Video Games [ ] Anthropomachy [ ] Assassin’s Creed [ ] Astoria: Fate’s Kiss [ ] God of War: Chains of Olympus [ ] Hades [ ] Hegemone Pass [ ] Holy Potatoes! What the Hell?! [ ] Persephone (Momo-Pi game) [ ] Sacrifice [ ] SMITE [ ] Tales of Ancient Nights [ ] Titan Quest -Animated [ ] Animated Tales of the World [ ] Class of the Titans [ ] Crash Course World Mythology [ ] Disney’s Hercules [ ] Gods’ School [ ] Mythic Warriors Guardians of the Legend [ ] Olympus Guardians Anime [ ] Overly Sarcastic Productions [ ] Persephone’s Flight [ ] Silly Symphony -Live Action [ ] Hercules: The Legendary Journeys [ ] The Magician [ ] Percy Jackson [ ] Persephone (Kate Lann)

#persephone #tarot #lore olympus #hadestown #percy jackson #Persephone tarot deck

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recommendedlisten · 4 years

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Narrowing down the year's Best Breakthrough Artists is no easy task in an era where there is so much new music to be discovered. As Recommended Listen gets started on its Best of 2020 list series, it's become quickly obvious that even in a year that has stopped everyone in their tracks like this one, it did not stop art and creativity from doing its thing across every facet of sound. This year's Best Breakthrough Artists features many artists new to the scene, some names you might know from elsewhere, and those who simply hit their stride after years of cultivating their craft. They're the needle movers of new music's future from here on out...

The Changing Face of Punk to Come

We are finally seeing the face of the modern punk scene change rightfully so through representation beyond white painted walls with members of the BIPOC community. Led by the shape-shifting tour de force that is frontperson Katie McD, the D.C. punk band Bacchae’s J. Robbins-produced debut album Pleasure Vision evaluates what is going on in both the world and our lives around us, breaks down the walls of that which no longer seem to be supporting us for the better, and sets out to rebuild them with a stronger foundation.

Furious and joyous at once, Pinkshift -- the Baltimore punk band of vocalist Ashrita guitarist Kumar Paul Vallejo, bassist Erich Weinroth, and drummer Myron Houngbedji -- are going to be the band that makes every single teenager regardless of their background feel welcome into the scene. The same goes for the Special Interest, an all-women and queer industrial punk quartet from New Orleans whose sophomore standout The Passion Of is turning visceral political statements into provocative carnage on the dancefloor. Similarly, Colombian-born Brooklynite Ela Minus is using DIY punk ethos to sound her own rebellion using the pulses of electronic minimalism as her medium to the masses.

Familiar Faces In New Formations

The worlds of punk and hardcore have always overlapped on the stylistic Venn diagram, and so has its memberships. It’s not unusual for any one member of a band to have various other projects going on at the same time, but what never ceases to surprise is how great they are on their own feet. This year heard Ross Farrar of CEREMONY infuse melodic hardcore into indie rock alongside members No Sir and Creative Adult with their debut as SPICE. Ian Shelton of Regional Justice Center got together with members of Drug Church and Modern Color in the existentially blissed out entry point as Militarie Gun on My Life Is Over.

Beyond that realm, three members from the original incarnation of emo rockers Tigers Jaw in Adam McIlwee, b.n.a. Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, and Dennis Mishko and Pat Brier, now of Three Man Cannon, reunited as gothic indie-punk rockers Pay for Pain, with a promising debut EP to bat, while two members of departed Baltimore shoegazers Wildhoney returned under a very different fold, as guitarists Joe Trainer and Nathan O’Dell reinvented themselves on the opposite side of the coast in Los Angeles as the avant noise-pop quartet Dummy, and delivering two of the year’s time-space-and-sonic-barrier transcending EPs.

Even further off the grid, ISOLA, the latest reincarnation of artist Ivana Carrescia, formerly of Eddy Front, linked up once again with her Gioia bandmate and Godmode Music producer Nick Sylvester for meta-physical movement exercise ISOLA, and their supernatural electronic experience of a debut EP.

Genre Is Over

The most overused term written throughout Recommended Listen this year was arguably “genre agnostic,” but not for any bad reasons. Now that today’s rising artists come from a generation that grew up with iTunes, playlist consumption, and discovering music instantaneously at their fingertips, the lines between genres are being blurred in fascinating ways.

beabadoobee, the songwriting moniker of 20-year-old Filipino-born British songwriter Bea Kristi, is a Tik Tok pop darling raised on the Internet era of indie rock who crafts it with shimmering with major label gloss, with her debut album Fake It Flowers playing like synesthesia in influencer form. glass beach, who self-describe themselves as a “post-emo” band, are being humble in that classification, as their debut album the first glass beach album improvises jazz, post-rock, experimental electronic and punk convictions all on the same colorful canvas.

It’s not entirely generational, though. Arguably the newly crowned prince of indie rock modernism, Bartees Strange entered his 30s by challenging not only the entire genre but identity spectrum with his cover of songs by the National through the Black artist gaze on the Say Goodbye to Pretty Boy EP, and later, furthering his creative vision as a sonic polymath delving into rap, noise, and punk realms perfectly of his debut album Live Forever. When you think of singularity in music, Bartees is it.

Post-Punk Will Never Die, But You Will

It’s not always about morbid dread or political angst, although that never ceases to be the life force behind post-punk’s continuous evolution. This year heard new waves born in the sound of Chicago’s Dehd and their sophomore breakout Flower of Devotion, synthetic connections with the afterlife through their local peers Deeper in their Auto-Pain, and a debonair worship of its beautiful angles at the altar of Salt Lake City’s Choir Boy with Gathering Swans.

P.E., the Brooklyn-based outfit which features members of the defunct punk band Pill and experimental electricians Eaters, recontour the body of rhythm and synthetic shapes in their own avant-garde vision on their debut full-length Person, while their fellow BK labelmates Public Practice, born from the ashes of Brooklyn indie-pop darlings Beverly and punk band Wall, focus angles in a dark dance disco and infinite space with a Gentle Grip.

Underground Hip-Hop On the Rise

We're past the days of hip-hop being defined by its all-stars. Most of them are too concerned with how to manipulate streaming for their chart stature and fame gain anyway rather than focusing on the art of rhyme. For that, look to the most intriguing sounds in the game now rumbling through the underground with the kind of artists who think far outside the box.

Two artists to put an ear out for are Brooklyn's Navy Blue and Keiyaa. On her self-released debut album Forever, Ya Girl, the experimental hip-hop and R&B songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist makes lo-fi rhyme collages a vision board for true empowerment. Navy Blue, the rap alter-ego of pro-skater, model and Earl Sweatshirt collaborator Sage Elsesser put together his own hip-hop kintsugi on his first LP Àdá Irin.

Turning heads a full 360° around, however, are the horrorcore rap nightmares of Backxwash, the alter ego of Zambian-Canadian rapper Ashanti Mutinta, who on this year's breakout effort God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It let her demons reign supreme and took home this year's Polaris Prize for it.

The Newest Heavyweight Contenders

In the vast rock universe, 2020 introduced us to one of its best new classes. Bands on the opposite sides of the pond in Austin’s Narrow Head and Leeds UK outfit Higher Power are defying the gravity of heavyweight riff rock, as evidenced in their respective sophomore standouts 12th House Rock and 27 Miles Underwater and their potentials to bring these two rising acts to same heights as space age luminaries Hum and Deftones. In circle pits, it’s a shame that live music was put on hold, because you can only imagine how the intensity of Santa Cruz scene exports Gulch would have put on some of the best performances across hardcore festivals following the former’s incinerating Inpenetrable Cerebral Fortress.

Topshelf Talent On Display

The independent label Topshelf Records came to be known mostly as a hotbed of talent during the #emorevival of the early 2010s, but this year has proven them to be being among one of the best labels broadening the spectrum of more adventurous sounds. addy, the Richmond-based band led by songwriter Addy Watkins, is making nature-lush indie rock that turns inward out with their debut album eclipse. Flung, the moniker of Oakland multi-instrumentalist Janak JP, made one of the most undefinable sonic collages this year with their debut Shaky But My Hair Is Grown.

For calmer meditations, KIND, the sophomore breakout from Thanya Iyer, positions worldly folk and indie-pop in balance for a truly organic sonic healing experience. Record Setter, the shape-shifting screamo outfit out of Denton, TX, prove on their proper debut I Owe You Nothing that Topshelf hasn’t lost touch with its roots as it continues pushing the boundaries outward for the scene.

Independently Dependable

Of course, there are also the names in the independent music scene that have been exciting to hear do their thing on their own terms. Michigan punks Dogleg followed through on the promise of last year’s listmaking single “Fox” with the emotional chaos that is their debut LP Melee. The urban cowboy rides again through country traditionalism transmitted through the experimental millennial airwaves of Brooklyn songwriter Dougie Poole and his latest, The Freelancer’s Blues. Meanwhile, zero fucks toward accessibility are given by Los Angeles four-piece Sprain as they break down the heavier elements of slowcore, post-hardcore and experimental metal with a patient deconstruction on their debut album As Lost Through Collision.

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vileart · 6 years

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Macbeth Dramaturgy: Mark Bruce @ Wilton's Music Hall

MARK BRUCE COMPANY Winner of the 2014 South Bank Sky Arts Award for Best Dance Production (Dracula)

Presents

A striking dance/theatre re-imagining of Shakespeare’s tragic tale of power, corruption, murder

UK tour: January 25th-May 12th

including 3 weeks at Wilton’s Music Hall

The multi-award-winning MARK BRUCE COMPANY will tour their haunting new dance/theatre re-imagining of Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ in 2018.

With direction and choreography by visionary artistic

director Mark Bruce, a cast of nine outstanding performers and dramatic design by the same creative team behind Dracula and The Odyssey, Mark Bruce Company’s ‘Macbeth’ will realise a beautifully harrowing vision of an internal wasteland formed from the pursuit of power through ruthless means.

Drama, dance and film audiences will be drawn to Bruce's imaginative vision of the treacherous Macbeths' (Jonathan Goddard, Eleanor Duval left, photo by Nicole Guarino) toxic world of jealousy, ambition and corruption. Set in a supernatural and brutal underworld, both tragic and beautiful, with a horror film atmosphere of menace and murder ... all of this will be packed into Bruce's new production.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Everything in the play - how it confronts us with the demons inherent in our nature. Its tragic beauty, symbolism, the supernatural ‘in-between’ world it evokes and sets its story in.

How did you become interested in making performance?

It just happened, I don’t remember a catalyst or a moment, it just bled out of creativity and ways of communication

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

I use an amalgamation of approaches - possibly hybrid - I started a company so I could build work with no rules or dividing lines between mediums and approaches.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

Every show is a progression and a tangent.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

It should creep inside them and shift things around.

‘MACBETH’ tour dates:

January 25th-27th Frome, Merlin Theatre www.merlintheatre.co.uk Jan 31st-Feb 1st Winchester, Theatre Royal www.theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk February 8th, 9th Birmingham, DanceXchange www.dancexchange.org.uk February 23rd to March 17th London, Wilton’s Music Hall www.wiltons.org.uk March 23rd 24th Ipswich, Dance East www.danceeast.co.uk April 17th, 18th Blackpool, The Grand www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk May 1st, 2nd Exeter, Northcott Theatre www.exeternorthcott.co.uk

May 10th-12th Salisbury Playhouse www.salisburyplayhouse.com May 17th 18th Milton Keynes, Stantonbury Theatre www.stantonburytheatre.co.uk Publicity: [email protected]

Performers: Eleanor Duval, Jonathan Goddard, Jordi Calpe-Serrats, Christopher Thomas, Daisy West, Dominic Rocca, Hannah McGlashon, Steven Berkeley-White, Carina Howard.

Choreographer/director: Mark Bruce Set design:

Philip Eddolls Lighting design: Guy Hoare Costume design: Dorothée Brodrück

Artistic Director Mark Bruce: “Macbeth hits you fast, cuts through to the bone, and for me it is the least ambiguous of Shakespeare's plays. Its darkness opens our nightmares; we recognise fundamental traits inside ourselves and the consequences of acting upon them. The vicious pursuit of power to fill a void will always be relevant - the Macbeths are everywhere in every age, because they are a part of us. “I first read Macbeth as a teenager and returning to it now the images, atmosphere it evokes have not changed. Its power lies in a relentless tale of supernatural horror told with a beauty and symbolism that reaches to the tragic state of the ‘other’. The supernatural is always present in Macbeth, bending our own thoughts and perceptions as well as those of the protagonists. It infects us, always one step ahead, and Macbeth’s decisions are made in the world of a nightmare as if there is no separation between thought and action. Murder is done and descent is rapid.

“The Macbeths are mere playthings of the evil they set free, and in the madness and emptiness that ensues they become but walking shadows, or, as in my adaptation, simply clowns of sound and fury.” Mark Bruce Company has built up a formidable reputation for uncompromising dance-theatre work. Early MBC productions include Moonlight Drive (1991), Lovesick (1995), Helen, Angel (1996), Horse (1998), Dive (1999) and At Louse Point (1997) with Polly Jean Harvey and John Parish. Mark Bruce has made work for other companies including Fever to Tell (2005) and The Sky or a Bird (2008) for Probe, Stars for Dance South West, Green Apples for the ROH’s Clore Studio Summer Collection, Bad History for the Place Prize 2006, Crimes of Passion (2010) and Medea (2011) for Bern Ballet. MBC’s more recent productions include Sea of Bones (2007), Love and War (2010) which opened at the Bristol Tobacco Factory, Made In Heaven (2012), the award-winning Dracula (2013, 2014), and The Odyssey (2016).

In 2014 Dracula scooped four major awards:

South Bank Sky Arts Award for Best Dance Production

Critics’ Circle Award Dance Section for Best Independent Company

Dancing Times Award for Best Male Dancer (Modern) – Jonathan Goddard for ‘Dracula’

Dancing Times Award for Best Male Dance – Jonathan Goddard for Mark Bruce Company

Mark co-devised Skellig (2008), an opera based on the book by David Almond, for the Sage Gateshead; the Royal Exchange Theatre’s productions of The Bacchae, Antigone, The Glass Menagerie, The Revenger’s Tragedy, Antony & Cleopatra, Peer Gynt, As You Like It, Fast Food, Still Time and The Way of the World. He directed Rick Bland’s award-winning Thick which toured the UK, US and Canada and in 2015 worked with Singapore Repertory Theatre on their production of The Tempest. Mark has also worked in a variety of new media, screen and interactive stage productions with Ruth Gibson & Bruno Martelli of Igloo. He has written music for his own work and for art installations and is published by Mute Song. His book of short stories, Blackout Zones was released in May 2010. Mark is currently completing his book on Choreography and Making Dance Theatre.

from the vileblog http://ift.tt/2rv78eN

#Theatre #Blogger #visual art #Edinburgh Fringe #Experimental Critique

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