Invisible Empire
From conformity to alienation to violent resistance.
How is it that ordinary people can find themselves resorting to violence in an attempt to change the world? What makes someone decide to shoot a politician, to blow up a building, to strap on a bomb?
Interweaving ensemble movement, layered text and breath-taking polyphonic song, Invisible Empire builds from the mundane everyday to a climax of shattering ferocity.
Invisible Empire began with a curiosity about what drives people to extreme acts of resistance.
We started by identifying needs: for understanding, for touch, for love, for acceptance. Needs that, when thwarted, can darken, turn inwards, and drive us towards a violent explosion that tries to remake what's gone wrong.
As we dug deeper, we began to locate a feeling of being trapped, yearning for escape – escape from everything and nothing – escape perhaps even from ourselves.
Invisible Empire was the culmination of an intermittent year-long process of company training in polyphonic song and movement, as well as collective research into acts of resistance.
Invisible Empire premiered in 2013 at Summerhall and toured in Spring 2014 to selected venues in Scotland including The Barn, Aboyne Theatre, Cumbernauld Theatre, Summerhall and Platform.
Funded by Creative Scotland.
Gallery
Film
Reviews
“ I had to restrain myself from shrieking because it was just so damn exciting. I don’t remember when I last felt so exhilarated! It was like a whip cracking onstage – totally mesmerizing and intrinsically powerful.
“ A cry from the dark that lingers
“ It’s not often that a show leaves an audience sitting in silence for two minutes after the cast has left…
Credits
Project development supported by Creative Scotland
Tour supported by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland
in partnership with The Barn, Surge, Dance House and Summerhall