White Elephant
“Big men in big suits on big thrones.”
White Elephant collides three dancers and three actors in a ‘bastardised’ commedia/ clown/ mask performance.
Three bloated oligarchs enter a new world and set about making it their own. A chorus of masked Zanni (servants) attend to and perform for them. The use of art by the Zanni to communicate injustice prompts an examination of the relationship between art and power. The show investigates the fears and fascinations of the wealthy elite, and by proxy the middle class that keeps them in power.
“Extraordinary, deeply satisfying, impossible to explain, delightfully non-linear... washed through by the sea of voices before a profound ending that blows the top off the whole thing.”
White Elephant premiered at the Hannah Playhouse, Wellington in November 2014.
