PRESENTED WITH 600 Whale
Co-Director, Co-Writer, Performer, Lighting Designer, Co-Scenic Designer, Co-Producer, Sound Designer
Presented at The Soap Factory
ABOUT
In this immersive theatre production, audiences were invited into a 3000sq/ft basement enclave of an old factory on the Mississippi River to witness the performance of a ritual conducted by the Atomic Priesthood.
Starting with the descent into the subterranean bunker, the audience is asked to move freely about and around the performance and ritual performed by the priests. Lit almost entirely with headlamps and with only a massive pile of cinderblocks hauled around by the performers, the piece was uncharacteristically slow, meticulous, and hypnotic. Each night, a wall is broken down to reveal the sanctum of the priesthood, where audiences were fed jello communion.
The history
The Human Interference Task Force was a team of engineers, anthropologists, nuclear physicists, behavioral scientists and others convened on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy and Bechtel Corp. to find a way to reduce the likelihood of future humans unintentionally intruding on radioactive waste isolation systems. -wiki
The Atomic Priesthood is an ongoing multidisciplinary project illustrating the relationship(s) between humans and deep time through the culture of nuclear waste stewardship. Initially conceived by Thomas Sebeok and Alvin Weinberg, The Atomic Priesthood was a proposed system of communicating the history, infrastructures, and science of nuclear waste materials on geologic timescales through the use of ritual, allegory, and superstition. -theatomicpriesthoodproect.org
February 2017
SØREN OLSEN 