April 2014
Presented by the Present Tense Ensemble & Castlemaine State Festival 
at the Old Castlemaine Gaol

Directors Bryce Ives & Nathan Gilkes
Designer Tammy Marshall
Lighting Designer Nicola Andrews
Photography Pia Johnson
Devised by Anna Boulic, Bryce Ives, Nate Gilkes and the Present Tense Ensemble. 

About Catacombes 
 

What is Chants Des Catacombes?

Poignant and eerie, Chants des Catacombes is an immersive and multi-sensory promenade theatre experience created by the Present Tense ensemble and popular Melbourne drum/violin duo The Twoks. 

Site-specific, it mixes music, dance, song, dialogue, scent, light and space, to weave together dark and mystical story of fact and mythology, underscored by popular contemporary and classical music. Lyrics are like bent fairytales, whispered, commanded, serenaded, shouted. Contemporary songs by artists such as Portishead, Nirvana and Laura Marling are adapted and given enchanting or horrific twists, transformed into the unique and the timeless.

Our aim is to tap into the senses: smell, sight, sound and memory. The stories of our three murdered  women plays out in small spaces, large spaces, on harps and violins, through Hip Hop and Opera. Peculiar, surprising and enjoyable.

Critical response to Catacombes 

“The highlight of the festival is Chants des Catacombes. We arrive at the gaol at 11pm. Lit by small candles, we walk the flickering perimeter and are led into a dark space. Out of smoke, three screaming prisoners appear. Above and under us, the women are close enough to touch (and we do). They merge their foreheads to ours, pleading. They crawl through our legs, begging. Their voices soar through the corridors and down the narrow stairs as we follow them: a French showgirl in a salon (we loll on her bed as she plays the harp); a courtesan dancing for the general; a surgeon (under pretence: a woman pretending to be a man). And just as I’m thinking, “why do female characters have to be so passive?” the work takes up this question directly, speaks of Desdemona and Othello, shifts a gear to take up the fight. The entire performance is told through contemporary song and dance, and undergoes a Baz treatment, morphing from the gender-bending Blur’s “Girls & Boys” to Nirvana to Portishead to Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and even Kelis’ “Milkshake” for comic effect. 

The three central performers Anna Boulic, Laura Burzacott and Zoe McDonald are murder victims trapped in the underworld and they raise hell with their voices. The choreography and lighting—as the musicians and actors lead you through the space—entrap and confront you with your own fears of madness and confinement. The audience is jittery. They hold back and are compliant. But the performers stay intimate and in-your-face, restless with violence and payback. It’s a performance I longed to see endlessly on repeat—in a space I couldn’t wait to be released from.”  Real Time Arts Review 

 “Atmospherically rich and acoustically beautiful, the venue is a perfect setting for this evocative musical exploration of lustmord, in which the restless spirits of three murdered women tell their tragic stories.... Performances are powerful, and are further enriched by a strong visual aesthetic and exquiste lighting. The production’s weak link is its lack of narrative clarity, though this is almost made up for by the rich aesthetic, which lingers in the mind long after the last shrieks have echoed and died in the gaol’s echoing halls."  Richard Watts