Persephone

About the production

"Thank you for giving me this nothing"

Ceres' search, Jove's judgment, Dis' lust all threaten to engulf Proserpine as she struggles to compose herself. A local boy is transformed into a lizard; an elf into an owl. Two nymphs and her best friend witness a descent into hell and back again.

Proserpine: Neither shadow nor glow
Shadow glow Ascalaphus: Snow? Dis: The Shadow Glow Ceres: Snow

A piece for 'nine imprisoned performers' this recycling of the Persephone myth draws upon a rich research and development process which explored different ways of telling the tell. Using processes and ideas adapted from Laban and Beckett, we devised experimental work in response to Ovid's verse (using translations from Golding to Hughes). The play that has emerged feels very much like a 'Fail Better' show - audience members who are familiar with our work may be reminded of Crave (2002), Echo and Narcissus (2003) and Phaedra's Love (2004). Yet something new and surprising has emerged here. For a piece that began by exploring parental relationships and mental illness, something more absurd and abstract has been discovered: it seems to be a play about the meaning of myth itself.

Myth is by necessity suicidal. It needs to be created and destroyed. It can never be fully known or understood, for then it would cease to be a myth. Each attempt to tell is an attempt to re-tell and no sooner has that process begun, then the whole project is condemned to failure. There is something inexpressible about myth, yet there is something compulsive about its re-telling. It helps us understand the world and allows us to mis-understand the world.

Proserpine: I'm here to confess Ceres: We're not starting with a confession Proserpine: I need to confess Ceres: We're starting with a search Proserpine: But I need - Ceres: My search Proserpine: To confess Ceres: The search for my daughter

A rehearsed reading of Persephone (first draft) took place at the Rosemary Branch Theatre, London on Sunday 25th November 2007. (Performed by Helen Bradbury, Steph Pötschke, Jonathan Broke and Chris Tester). An earlier version of the Prologue was performed as Persephone's Confession at Mook Monologues, Notting Hill Gate on Monday 12th June 2006. (Written by Jonathan Heron, directed by Gary Abrahams and performed by Evie Dawnay).

We also worked with a student ensemble in Summer 2008: Ollie Baxter, Maria Fsadni, Ben Jacobs, Nat Rossetti, Hannah Tottenham, Cara Verkerk, Zoe Walshe.