The Chimerical

This event, in a blend of ceremonial actions and traditional narrative, bravely invites the audience to step into the world of the mystic and unreal.

While gathering, the audience was invited to write a word on a ribbon and decorate a metal ring which was carried and used to make ceremonial gestures throughout the journey.

The audience’s procession through the park was led by a host, The Familial and The Keeper, who was on stilts, carried a sceptre, and wore a lighted skirt and horned crown. Individual trees had a small ceremony enacted in front of them by The Keeper and The Familial.

The procession eventually arrived at a bonfire where the well-worn narrative of a threat by a beast, in this case, The Chimercial, and its ultimate control by The Keeper, made up the final episode of the event.

The set and costume design (WildHoney, Fiona Harper-Harwood and Scrying Pool, Andrew Provan) and the Bonfire (Roderick Poole) were very well realised and added to the sense of difference to ordinary life. The cast, Eloise Wood, Hoya Wolfgang and Amanda Magan, managed the movement of the audience through the park and the creation of their world with the support of well-chosen and planned music and lighting.

In spite of the difficulties of sustaining their engagement in the world of The Chimerical through periods walking without opportunities for engagement, this journey is still an invitation to consider the world around us in a different light.

Ruth Richter

Photographer: Rebecca Hosking