The House Was Dark Until He Found A Key - this page contains background material on the research and development of this project including the two development stages - structure design - and performance content. For information on the upcoming production, please refer to the About page.
Original working title Luminoceros, this is an outdoor theatre performance full of paradoxes. A temporary structure provides the playing space for a theatre that is simultaneously an intimate live performance and a large public light show. Set in a public square or courtyard this structure replicates the dimensions of a 19th century opera house but while the performance inside is entirely mechanical, the action is lit, projected or cast as shadow onto the fabric walls from the inside out. This project is a continuation of Winning Productions’ investigation into intimacy within public space and how audiences may choose their own level of participation in live art.
Part one of the development process was commissioned by Auckland Arts Festival 2011, and the first working design was installed in the Auckland town hall. The purpose of this development stage was to solve structural logistics and to outline the approach towards the second development focussing on dramaturgy.
Most of the images on this site are from this first workshop process.
Project initiator Stephen Bain is a designer and director of theatre and in-situ performances for many years. His company Winning Productions has a number of outdoor performances that have toured festivals throughout New Zealand, Australia, parts of Asia, Canada and four summer tours throughout Netherlands, Belgium, France and Britain.
Original working title Luminoceros, this is an outdoor theatre performance full of paradoxes. A temporary structure provides the playing space for a theatre that is simultaneously an intimate live performance and a large public light show. Set in a public square or courtyard this structure replicates the dimensions of a 19th century opera house but while the performance inside is entirely mechanical, the action is lit, projected or cast as shadow onto the fabric walls from the inside out. This project is a continuation of Winning Productions’ investigation into intimacy within public space and how audiences may choose their own level of participation in live art.
Part one of the development process was commissioned by Auckland Arts Festival 2011, and the first working design was installed in the Auckland town hall. The purpose of this development stage was to solve structural logistics and to outline the approach towards the second development focussing on dramaturgy.
Most of the images on this site are from this first workshop process.
Project initiator Stephen Bain is a designer and director of theatre and in-situ performances for many years. His company Winning Productions has a number of outdoor performances that have toured festivals throughout New Zealand, Australia, parts of Asia, Canada and four summer tours throughout Netherlands, Belgium, France and Britain.
CLICK HERE to view an online scrap-book presentation of the research work for development stage one.
Research videos
OHP performance - the following is a performance from 2010 by Stephen Bain, Josh Rutter and Chris O'Connor. Click on image to view.
Below are a bunch of links to work by artists who will be influential in my own research. Click on the bold type on the title of each clip to view.
Jan Svankmajer's Faust made in 1994 sits in a genre of it's own, shot in real-time and stop-mation. The story of Faust is treated with a new vision of the 20th century. Jan Svankmajer's Darkness, Light, Darkness shot in 1989 is an earlier attempt at integrating the world of the puppeteer with the subject.
Ingmar Bergman's Persona, from 1966 is a psychological drama between a theatre actor stuck in a personal crisis and her nurse. This section comes from near the end of the film where it appears that the two personalities are inseparable. Plato's Allegory of the Cave has a couple of animated versions on the web. The first one is a recent one by John Grisby made from photographing models. The second is the very camp (in retrospect) 1974 animation with Orson Wells narrating. Plato's Cave Two. The final video here is by The Quay Brothers, A Street Full of Crocodiles, another magnificent animated world.