"One day this show will have an amazing press quote. For now, I'm gonna go ahead and say it's awesome"
-Joe Hooligan Lui
In 2014 I wrote the majority of The Book of Life under the auspices of the Black Swan State Theatre Company's Emerging Writer's Program. Because I am really lucky, I also got to develop it with Playwriting Australia on one of their National Script Workshops.
Because I am ridiculously lucky, in April 2015 I had a 2 week creative development at PICA with some incredible collaborators. The images/video/audio on this page are a documentation of this period and process.
The Book of Life is a personal attempt at understanding what it is to live in the only way I know how - through the lens and scale and violence and magnificence of the natural world and its deep history.
The play follows Lily - a teenage girl, in her attempt to comprehend the meaning of life as she journeys through the underworld. She meets a menagerie of creatures from Earth's past - Pikaia Gracilens- the first chordate, Tiktaalik - the first land dwelling fish, and T-Rex, which I really don't need to tell you about.
The development was done in collaboration with some incredible artsts - performers Paul Grabovac, Ella Hetherington, Mikala Westall, Nick Pages-Oliver, Violette Ayad and designer Cherish Marrington. The development was a truly collaborative experience, with everyone swapping roles (both performative and otherwise), but the videos feature Nick as the Narrator, Violette as Lily, Paul as T-Rex, and Ella as Charon and Pikaia.
Thanks the PICA for hosting us, DCA for funding us, BSSTC and PWA for developing me, and The Blue Room Theatre for auspicing.
Special thanks to Michelle Aitken for showing up and helping out, Cathering Bonny for the lending of gear, Lauren Rochelle and Matty Marino for creating the T-Rex head, and Roger for everything.
Enjoy!
-Joe Hooligan Lui (Writer, director, composer of The Book of Life)
Song 1 - "Welcome Fellow Humans!" A large part of the development process went into turning what was straight text into music and song. Hopefully you can tell, but I went for an overall bluesy feel to the music, exploiting its pre-existing connection to the afterlife!
Song 2 - "Why are we here?"
One of the drawings Cherish made for the work. Yes, you should be jealous because I work with ridiculous talented people
Initial design for Tiktaalik's Lair - we didnt get round to working out a Tiktaalik scene... this time
The River Styx. - Marrington
Mikala as Lily drifts down the Styx serenaded by Ella
Paul as Narrator in the initial phase of working out what the hell these characters were
Narrator, Charon and Lily chill atwixt takes
Beautiful Ella as the Eukaryote that Would
Thanks for checkin it out!
Mikala as Lily shows God what time it is
