"Inspired & Moving" ... "Visually Stunning"
Heretic
Devised & Performed by Niki McCretton
Directed & Co-Devised by Guy Dartnell
Visual Concept by Shermaine Slocombe ... Film & Lighting Design by Paul Redman
Music by Mark Bradbury ... Technical Manager: Steve Dart
X is for Excommunication
Banished to the Moon like a princess in a tower, a woman is told to fill a tank with tears to repent for her misdemeanours on Earth. But what if she isn't sorry? She rants, dances, bares her soul (and her bum) and laughs her way through this extraordinary fall from grace. An exceptional feat of imagination, Heretic charts the lives of those who are sidelined - exploring the freedom of solitude, and the power and draw of home. A hybrid of theatre, dance, music and film, Heretic is a sensuous, often farcical and ultimately optimistic argument for spiritual sanity.
"McCretton's absolute passion and conviction as a performer ultimately win the day."
(Victoria Times-Colonist)
"An honest, ascetic, pervy and sulky personal struggle with an aspiritual world."
(Total Theatre Magazine)
"The pain of maintaining individuality at the torturous price of loneliness is palpable."
(The Georgia Straight)
By Robin Chase
In his classic song Imagine, John Lennon asked everyone to imagine a world without religion - thereby, in his view, eliminating from the world all the negative by-products of religious ideology: self-righteousness, prejudice, condescension, discrimination, ethnic strife and war. However, in Lennon's Utopia, this would result from self-realization on the part of humanity and religion would simply fade away over time - essentially becoming redundant. But what if this scenario came about not through consensus, but through government edict acting out the so-called "will of the majority"? What would happen to those who still choose to believe, who still desire freedom of worship and freedom of expression? What would be the consequences for those who cling to their faith in defiance of the law?
An avant-garde, multi-media performance combining monologue, dance, music and film in the midst of a surreal set design, Heretic takes place in a future where religion and spirituality have been outlawed, and replaced by organized secularism. In this world, heretics are not those who hold beliefs contrary to the established doctrines of their religions, but are regarded as criminal misfits who threaten the welfare of the community through religious proselytization. (In this future, for example, The Ten Commandments of Christian faith have been replaced by The Ten Suggestions for community harmony.) Punishment for this crime of worship? Banishment to the Moon, with limited supplies, where offenders - imprisoned in isolation - must fill a tank with tears in order to repent for their misdemeanours before being allowed to return to Earth.
With a liberal sprinkling of absurdity and irony in her performance, Niki McCretton portrays one such convicted heretic - a woman of Christian faith who struggles with her spiritual convictions against her desire to return home ... and who also fights to keep her sanity in the face of abject loneliness. Can she ever be truly sorry for violating secular law? Can she cry sufficient tears and win her freedom? Can she cling to her Christian faith? Time may be running out .....
A contemporary-interpretive dancer, Niki includes three breathtaking dance sequences in this piece which won a Jenny Award for Best Physical Theatre Production at the 2003 Winnipeg Fringe Festival, part of her three-month 2003 North American Fringe Festival Tour during which she presented Heretic at festivals in Canada (Thunder Bay, Ontario; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Victoria & Vancouver, British Columbia) and in the United States (Minneapolis, Minnesota & Seattle, Washington). She had previously performed Heretic in the United Kingdom during the 2002-03 UK Theatre Season (after premiering the piece in her home community of Bridgwater, Somerset in March 2002) and at the 2003 Prague Fringe Festival in The Czech Republic.
REVIEWS: Minnesota | Seattle | Victoria-Vancouver | Winnipeg | UK-Prague
OTHER: Heretic News Articles | The Ten Suggestions | Biographies & Credits
2003 North American Tour Photos |
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Photos by Kevin Clifford
