Okay, I just couldn’t resist that title. Porno Death Cult was Vancity Buzz’s bonus pick for this spring’s Top 10 Theatre Picks. Coming soon to a Firehall Arts Centre near you. (Stopping now. Really.)
Dance-theatre genius Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg brings her unique, inquisitive eye for horror and hilarity to the big questions of spirituality and existence with her new solo work, Porno Death Cult, making its world premiere at the Firehall Arts Centre on March 5-8, 2014.
Following the success of Highgate (2013), her morbid romp through Victorian funerary culture, this new piece traverses similarly darkly comic terrain, exploring faith and faithlessness, life and death. In a pilgrimage through a strange landscape of longing, a woman, a preacher, and a god, come face to face with each other, and the unanswerable questions that contort our collective perceptions.
Porno Death Cult is created & performed by Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg.
Infused with Friedenberg’s signature humour and pathos, Porno Death Cult, draws on a diverse range of talented collaborators to create an immersive live experience where dance, art and theatre converge. Director Marcus Youssef (Neworld Theatre) lends his unique style and impeccable eye to this idiosyncratic fusion of text, dance, character, and prayer for something better.
Porno Death Cult is one of Friedenberg’s most personal works yet, delving deeper into human trauma. “It certainly mines more of myself”, she observes. In 2010 she walked the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route through Southern France and Spain, which prompted her to examine her own skepticism about religion and her relationship with spirituality. While not religious herself, she was fascinated with the theatricality of the opulent, gilded Spanish cathedrals and the huge statues of the bleeding Jesus.
In the piece she draws on elements of her own lived experience – the contradictions of West Coast yoga culture (she’s been practicing yoga since she was 3 years old), southern Baptist traditions of North Carolina where her father lives, and the questions that walking the Camino raised for her.
Ticket Information
Dates: March 5-8, 2014
Bonus Artist Talkback: Thurs March 6
Venue: Firehall Arts Club, 280 East Cordova Street
Ticket Info: Buy Tickets Online
Photo Credit: Wendy D Photography.
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