Day by day, a drizzle of moondust chokes a nameless city, where the rules of day to day life are skewed, but a strange logic persists. The play focuses on a specific subculture, dominated by a drug that posseses consciousness and a will to survive. Here an ecstatic and addicted immortal exchanges sugar for something that may be sex, an endangered marsupial produces entheogenic urine. and an enchanted map directs the unwary to an illusory paradise
In this reconfigured version of our own world, the issue of drug addiction is explored in a new way . Preconceptions are cast aside. Prejudices are disallowed. William Burrough's 'algebra of need' is exposed in vivid detail, as the drug itself assumes a looming subjective presence that may almost be human.
Previously, Sam Sejavka has addressed
the addiction issue in realist style with In Angel
Gear. In Lord of Misrule, he extrapolates the subject into an imagined
world, lending it freshness and objectivity. A clear narrative binds a wolrd
of apparent nonsense into harsh comment on the law, need, desire, self-deprecation
and the mirage of redemption.
WITH REGARD TO RECENT MELBOURNE PRODUCTION AT THE COURT HOUSE:
PARTICIPANTS:
christian leavesley [director]
... Lord of Misrule explores the networks of addiction and the manner in which
society reshapes itself to embrace these networks...
...from the viewpoint of the opium poppy or the cannabis plant, the production
of a psychoactive substance is an evolutionary advantage. Individuals are
actively selected for potency and yield, then enthusiastically cultivated
by a mammalian symbiont. Over the centuries such plants evolve with humanity,
having found a secure ecological niche...
