HERCULES
for Daniel Schlusser Ensemble

theatre

HERCULES (furens)

Directed by Daniel Schlusser
Produced by Bureau of Works

Music Composition
Sound Design
A/V Design

  • Director: Daniel Schlusser
    Performers: Mary-Helen Sassman, Katherine Tonkin and Edwina Wren

    Set and Costume Design: Romanie Harper and Bethany J Fellows
    Composer, Sound and AV Designer: James Paul
    Lighting Designer: Amelia Lever-Davidson

    Stage Manager: Theresa O’Connor
    Production Manager: Cassandra Fumi

    Producer: Erin Milne
    Associate Producer: Xavier O’Shannessy

“This is extraordinary theatre that leaves you raw. Its impact is felt more than it’s understood … we feel more than we think.”

Anne-Marie Peard, Australian Arts Review

HERCULES is my 6th and most ambitious collaboration with the indomitable Daniel Schlusser Ensemble.

There’s a huge world outside of the room. It’s seen through windows and doors. It feels dark, violent and overwhelming. The boxed-in safety of the kindergarten room begins to feel flimsy and unsafe.

We created a slippery, nauseating world. It had to be sensitive and gradual in order to be frightening and wild. Sounds came from within the walls, and a great eye radiated from the carpet. Horror, literature, and the ‘occult’ were shredded and rearranged into a slow, dripping, creeping dread.

images by Pier Carthew

Two furry monsters menace a small woman. A projection of amber and green smoke is seen outside a window.
Three woman look out a window onto a projection beyond. A giant eye is projected on the floor.
A woman looks through a window onto projected text beyond.

Design technology:

Video:
Madmapper & Qlab
3 channel projection (Panasonic laser series)
32:10 cyclorama
circular floor projection
VX Design made with Adobe software

Audio:
DiGoCo SD series & QLAB
Sennheiser G3 Microphones
12.2 channel point-source spatial array
NEXO LCR + Subs + Low L-R
MEYER Surround LCR + Rear L-R
Component woofers + tweeters for spot & special FX (clock/PA, wall cavity, subfloor)
SX design made with Reaper, Audacity, Ableton, Max/MSP, and FScape.

Two women hug in front of a giant projection of a TV.

HERCULES is structured as a series of descents. Each step (12 in total) brings us closer to Hercules’ ‘thirteenth labour:’ the murder of his wife, Megara, and children.

TV Static, numerals, and hellish soundscapes detail the journey toward Hades. As the twelfth descent completes, the world drops into freefall, crashing down to Tartarus, making an ungodly sound.

This tightly integrated A/V composition combines footage and animation with synthetic and authentic SFX, & synthesised music.

“Amelia Lever-Davidson’s lighting design and James Paul’s sound, music and – especially –  his AV work are simply superb.”

Stage Whispers