Labyrinth performance notes
Forest Collective, Abbotsford Convent, and Midsumma Festival present
Labyrinth
World Premiere season
6-10 February 2024
The Store, Abbotsford Convent
Labyrinth is supported by Midsumma Festival, Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) and
Moon Dog Craft Brewery.
Labyrinth is generously supported by a donation from the estate of Ro Lawson. We’d like to express our appreciation and also share our gratitude to all donors of our recent fundraiser.
Labyrinth was made possible with the generous support of Abbotsford Convent and is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.
Our media partners are 3BMS Fine Music Melbourne, Underground Media, and CutCommon
Forest Collective acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we live, meet, create, and perform this performance, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present, and extend our respects to all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders, past and present. We recognise and respect their cultural heritage, beliefs, and relationship with the land. We recognise Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of this nation.
A message from composer and artistic director, Evan J Lawson.
Welcome to the Labyrinth.
This new immersive work from Forest Collective unifies many ideas of Forest Collective; to create new, unique art that brings together multiple genres; present these ideas in unique ways; and showcase the brilliant abilities of the Forest Collective troup. We do hope that you find this new telling of this old tale a thrilling experience.
Forest Collective's events are often shaped by the venue. The Store offers us an ideal setting for the maze-like exploration of the Minotaur myth. The space inspired the idea of a multi-room and immersive experience. Daniel Szesiong Todd has created a beautifully poetic text, weaving an expressive narrative through the twisting corridors of the story.
Central to the music of this work is the piano, which portrays the monstrous Minotaur. This central part became a focus to showcase the talents of our brilliant solo pianist Danaë Killian. We're delighted to welcome soprano Teresa Ingrilli to Forest Collective for the first time, playing the role of Ariadne. Daniel sings his own text as the hero Theseus, and Soda returns in the role of Daedalus, the architect of the Labyrinth. Kim Tan performs on flute and Helen Bower on electric violin, with Andrew Maddick stepping in for the Tuesday performance. To enhance the sonic palette, I incorporated electronic elements. Dancers Ashley Dougan and Jesse Matthews guide you through the maze, providing stunning movement along the journey. All of these brilliant performers are framed by Jane Noonan's amazing costumes and Gabe Bethune's illuminating lighting design.
Join me in winding the dark corners of the Labyrinth. Let's hope we make it out alive!
A message from librettist, Daniel Szesiong Todd 鄭時雄.
The spark for Labyrinth came from the bronze sculpture ‘Minotaur Reading’ by British artist Beth Carter. This sculpture depicts a youthful minotaur, hunched over a little book. His expression is sombre and gentle – a far cry from traditional depictions of the minotaur as a terrifying, violent beast.
A little research revealed that the minotaur was first named ‘Asterion’ – a tender and loving name, which means ‘little star’. His mother, Queen Pasiphaë of Crete, had been cursed by the sea god Poseidon because her husband, King Minos, refused to sacrifice a sacred bull to the god. As punishment for her husband’s sacrilege, Pasiphaë was doomed to fall in love with the sacred bull and, with the help of the morally disinterested engineer Daedalus, she built a hollow cow puppet to enable the bull to have sex with her.
The resulting child was Asterion, the ‘minotaur’, which means ‘Bull of Minos’. An innocent hybrid baby, on whom the disgraced royal family heaped their own shame and failure. Instead of receiving love and nurture, this child was hidden away and brutalised. He was buried in a stone labyrinth, again created by Daedalus, and fed living human sacrifices from conquered Athens.
Enter the ‘hero’, Theseus – the abandoned, bastard child of King Aegeus of Athens, who is striving for his father’s approval by attempting to kill the beast. He is aided by Ariadne – Princess of Crete and the minotaur’s half-sister. This sorry legacy has been the narrative thread of her life, and she will use spun woollen thread to guide Theseus through the labyrinth. But what is her motivation for helping a stranger kill her brother Asterion?
This ancient myth is filled with children dealing with the legacy of their parents’ prejudice and shame – shame which was literally buried underground. And this is not something we have left in the past. Even today, we sometimes bury our feelings of shame deep in our own labyrinths, perhaps without even realising that their origins lie in other people’s prejudice.
As Ariadne warns in the opera: ‘Shame cannot be buried forever – one day it must erupt.’
Labyrinth
Evan J Lawson - Composer
Daniel Szesiong Todd 鄭時雄 - Librettist, Theseus
Ashley Dougan - Choreographer, dancer
Jane Noonan - Costume Design
Gabe Bethune - Lighting Design
Teresa Ingrilli - Ariadne, guest artist
SodaWater - Daedalus
Danaë Killian - Minotaur, piano soloist
Jesse Matthews - Dancer
Kim Tan - Flute
Helen Bower - Violin
Andrew Maddick - Violin, guest artist (Tuesday performance)
Jasmin Bardel - Visual Art
Vitae Veritas - Tactile Tour, Audio description
Labyrinth Libretto
Prologue
My people, my Athenians, brave Athenians.
Together we have journeyed across the sea to this cursed island of Crete.
And now we stand before the dreaded labyrinth -
And we are to be sacrificed.
But do not fear, my Athenians!
Stay close to me. Me! Theseus! Long-awaited son of your King Aegeus!
Stay close to me, don’t wander off -
And you might survive.
This is a place of terror… of sacrifice… of reckoning.
This is the labyrinth.
(Theseus leads the Athenian audience into the labyrinth)
Scene 1
Theseus:
Here’s blood – and here! I smell it…
From all sides – it sings in the stones!
Young blood of Athens, calling me to vengeance –
My people’s blood – I taste it…
O bloody vengeance…
Blood demands blood – for my people, for my father…
Do not despair, my Athenians.
I, Theseus, who killed the manic Bull of Marathon.
I, too, will kill this beast within.
(Ariadne, emerging from the half-dark)
Ariadne:
Theseus? Prince of Athens – are you Theseus?
Theseus:
What? Is this Ariadne, Princess of Crete? Minos’s pup? The butcher’s daughter – come to gloat! (Threatening) And alone in this dark place…
Ariadne:
(mocking)
O bold Theseus, you weaponless wonder.
In this labyrinth you are toothless, blind.
You cannot overcome the darkness of this place.
It seeps into you like black olives in brine –
It soaks your soul till it is dark as these dark paths.
(Minotaur bellows louder now – they freeze – Ariadne slips away into darkness)
Theseus:
(to the Athenian audience)
Follow.
(They continue into the Labyrinth)
Scene 2: Thread Dance
Scene 3: Soul-baring
(the room is illumed – thread is woven all around, showing the way)
Theseus
Ariadne…
Ariadne
Take this…
Theseus
This thread…?
Ariadne
This thread to find your way.
Old Daedalus built this maze of death:
Walls of hard, thick, rock and brick –
Split open this vessel of darkness.
Theseus
I…
Ariadne
When you are lost, you are dead,
Or does being lost suit you, long lost son of King Aegeus?
Theseus: (Aria)
Lost? I was never lost. I was hidden.
Left behind, yes. But not lost.
I was an unworthy child,
conceived in wine and despair.
Why would he stay for a child like that?
But my strength, my strength grew in obscurity –
I showed my boldness – my noble blood…
And I found him!
I proved to him my worth in deed and vow –
Through my own labours, forged a reputation
That neither King nor man can ignore!
He has no choice
but to accept … that I’m his son.
(vulnerable)
I will kill this Minotaur… free Athens…
He will be… proud of me.
Ariadne: (Aria)
(Softly)
My mother overindulged in beauty.
She saw and loved the bright essence of all things,
and let it fill her soul, intoxicate her being.
But my father’s iniquity
Cursed my mother’s salt blood, undone
by a bull unsacrificed - and then a bullish child…
Twice victim and twice damned –
Enthralled in a mad conception,
She bore him in her powerful womb…
Asterion. My brother.
The one you call ‘Minotaur’.
He smelled of milk and moss when he was born -
As though earth’s wildness clung to his soft skin.
His peaceful eyes withstood the outer storm
That raged about his innocence within.
They poured their shame, their rage, their hate
Upon his guiltless infant soul.
Their failures manifest in him –
They could not bear to look at him…
His tender body, craving warmth,
Found only brick and stone.
My boy, once sun-browned, beautiful,
Now pale, gaunt, lost, and alone…
Gods, how he cried –
His loneliness, more painful than his hunger.
Scene 4: Daedalus
(Daedalus enters through the crowd)
Daedalus: (Folk-song style)
Yo ho yo ho, kali-a-loh
Up from the salt-sea spray-oh!
Mighty and strong
Horns so long -
Come from the salt-sea-spray-oh!
Theseus:
Who is he? He is no Athenian!
Ariadne:
He is mad Daedalus, who made this place – now doomed to wander its caverns.
Daedalus:
Yo ho yo ho kali-a-loh
The Queen, she loved that bull-oh!
"Make a frame of cow hide
for me to get inside…
Then let the bull begin-oh”!
…how was I to know? I was just the engineer! “Make me a hollow cow”, she says, so I make it, don’t I!
What business is it of mine if she wants to fuck a bull in her god-inflicted madness!?
I was just the engineer!
I made a hollow cow puppet
so the bull could get up it…
With a yo ho, kali-a-loh!
Out comes a monstrous thing-oh!
Cucked the King,
Cursed within,
Here is the fruit of all that sin…
A minotaur can only moo, not sing…
Yo ho, kali-a-loh!
Lock him in a labyrinth-oh!
Horny old head
Munching on the dead
With muscles like armour, so it’s said
(exiting round a corner)
Hide him underground
Where he won’t be found…
Locked in a labyrinth-oh!
Locked in a labyrinth-oh….
(Terrified) … Gods it’s here… it’s here…I was just the engineer!
(Daedalus screams in dying agony as he is devoured)
Ariadne:
This way!
(she takes Theseus by the hand, leading him and the group away)
Scene 5
Theseus:
The monster…
Ariadne:
Asterion is the monster that we made him. Now you must listen…
Theseus:
I, …Ariadne, I…
Ariadne:
…listen. Take this sword. Free your people. Free my brother. And rid me of this island.
Theseus:
Yes, Ariadne, yes – we will give you passage – you will come with me.
Ariadne:
Here is too much shame, too much death. It poisons our country from within.
Theseus:
Yes, Ariadne, yes, let us flee these bloodied hillsides, come with me.
Ariadne:
Shame cannot be buried forever. One day it must erupt.
Theseus:
Yes, Ariadne, yes – let us both be free!
Both:
Let us stride the wine-dark sea
and leave this sea of stone –
Let wild light burn the past away
Let us be salt-spray, let us be sky.
O sweet lost form –
As the sculptor cleaves the marble body free,
They hid you in stone.
Ariadne:
There is a time for life, and a time for death. Go now. Set my brother free, free Athens. Free me. Or else die in his baleful grip. After all, this is his domain.
Theseus: (to the audience)
Follow.
(He leads the audience to the final chamber with the Minotaur. The final movement of the piano concerto ends the performance)