“Medusa Casting Mischiefs”. Drawn by Creature Karin Webb
The following scripted performance was written collaboratively by Samantha Bryan and Creature Karin Webb. Is is meant to bring the story of Medusa into the light contemporarily. We both feel connected to her story, and it was important to us to create art in tribute of her, especially concerning today’s conversations referencing #MeToo.
About Medusa: Medusa was, in her early years, a ravishingly beautiful Temple Priestess for the goddess Athena. Medusa (there are varied interpretations about the level of consent involved) was raped by Poseidon, and so banished by Athena from service. Athena also punished Medusa by making her ugly, turning her hair into snakes, and cursing her so that anyone who looked upon her face would turn to stone. Time passed for Medusa in this form. Eventually Perseus came along. He beheaded Medusa, taking her head with him to use as a weapon. When he finished with this use of her head, he eventually gave it to Athena so that she could mount the head upon her shield. When Perseus beheads Medusa, from her neck is birthed the winged Pegasus and Chrysaor, a giant.
Our performance was a meditation on a combination of factors from Medusa’s story and from our own experiences. It was as much about how one’s reputation (fairly or not fairly evolved) pervasively informs how society treats one. It’s also about the way we evolve as individuals because of the things which have been done to us. Though Medusa dies she is not forgotten, her story lives on in many millions of women and other people marked by sexual violence, self-freed sexualities, and those who wrestle with the brutality of shame. This performance points to our innate connection with one another, and our potential to treat each other with regard or without. It asks how we might come to one another’s aid, empathize with each other, and care for those who are marked as “fallen”. Samantha and my performance pays respect to Medusa’s spirit, one which invoked much inspiration during our time at this past month’s artist retreat for The Scarlet Tongue Project.
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Haunted by Medusa
By Creature Karin Webb and Samantha Bryan
Written for performance in la Ciudad de México, as part of The Scarlet Tongue Project/La Lengua Roja
Performed September, 6, 2018 at Pulqueria los Insurgentes
Medusa (played by Creature Karin Webb) takes her place on a ledge above the crowd and haunts the performance space this night. Like a gargoyle she inhabits her corner of the club. Connecting with audience members silently, she encourages individuals to draw close, taking a moment with each one who dares come forward. She is a ghost of her former self, temple Priestess to Athena. Medusa now haunts this room, connecting with whomever is capable of looking back and offering themselves vulnerably to her. Dark, older, unclean, she has bright eyes and offers her gaze for reflection back to the audience members willing to approach. Each connection is a world unto itself.
A bowl filled with rose petals, each marked with the artist’s blood is by her side. They are gifts, playthings, to smell, and used as offering. Medusa, deflowered long ago, was cast from society. Today from her perch she watches, casting mischiefs to the crowd below. Rose petals rain from above during this connection, or forehead to forehead she offers her silent touch during that one…
At last an actor approaches, and Medusa hands this player a piece of chalk. The performer draws a circle in the center of the room. A third performer, the Scarlet Woman (played by Samantha Bryan), enters and dances her story within the circle. At the end of her dance, she removes her large wig and veil, gestures towards where Medusa watches, and she sets it on the floor. The Scarlet Woman, as in Death, lays down to final rest.
Medusa approaches the circle to care for this woman’s body. She brings a wash basin of warm water, a cloth, and sheet with her into the circle. Medusa respectfully removes the Scarlet Woman’s clothes and washes her, preparing her body for the earth, and covering the body with the sheet last. Medusa sits a moment in witness over the covered body, and then proceeds to walk to the edge of the circle. Medusa slowly follows its path. As she walks her body becomes older and more bent over. Slower, ever closer to the ground, she continues on, crawling the last segment of the circle until she is left crumpled and unmoving on the floor. As Medusa makes this final walk, losing her power, the woman’s body animates from underneath the cloth, beginning to rise. As Medusa becomes motionless, the woman has lifted herself to sitting, sheet cascading away from her body. She is alive.
Like sand, a stream of salt is poured from directly above Medusa’s body onto her motionless form. The sheet, fallen from the Scarlet Woman’s face, allows her to witnesses this end. The Scarlet Woman stands, gathering her things. She leaves the circle, freed.
FIN
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I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions. We hope to perform this, and other pieces we’ve created as part of The Scarlet Tongue Project, at venues everywhere. Please let me know if you’re interested in bringing performances, lectures, workshops, and/or Documentary footage from The Scarlet Tongue Project to a venue near you. Our performance is easily adaptable to any space, and we’re happy to book at colleges, theaters, meeting halls, galleries, abandoned factories, art houses, private homes, or any other venue which has interest in sharing the project with an audience. Help us bring further discussion of women, anger, and art to your community.
Play On My Friends,
~ Creature
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