FLAMES DANCED IN THEIR HAIR BUT DID NOT BURN THEM

A multi-channel video work made in collaboration with the cast of Fraught Outfit’s 2015 production THE BACCHAE, FLAMES DANCED IN THEIR HAIR BUT DID NOT BURN THEM slides between documentary and fantasy, wild theatrical ritual and intimate conversation.

In 2015, Fraught Outfit premiered THE BACCHAE, a hypnotic, music-led performance that explored sexual objectification through a mythic and contemporary lens. Made with an ensemble of 13-18-year-olds, the result was a controversy-stirring production that prompted questions about the young performers’ agency. Almost a decade later, the cast, now in their 20’s, reunite in collaboration with Kate Blackmore, Adena Jacobs, Aaron Orzech, Kelly Ryall and Eugyeene Teh.

FLAMES is a reckoning with the past, a process of ‘coming down from the mountain’, of witnessing one another again and trying to grapple with the unnameable, sometimes beautiful, often treacherous experience of forming one’s sexuality in the real world, beyond the walls of the theatre. 

Duration
Approximately 30 minutes.

Content warning
Moderate coarse language, sexual references and mental health references. 

Credits
Created by Fraught Outfit.
Presented by Melbourne Fringe and Buxton Contemporary.
Produced by Performing Lines.

This project received Cash to Create through the Fringe Fund. Supported by Michael Jankie and Vivienne Poznanski, and Jenepher Martin. 

Co-creator/dramaturge Adena Jacobs
Co-creator/dramaturge Aaron Orzech
Film maker/co-creator Kate Blackmore
Composer & sound Designer/co-creator Kelly Ryall
Performers/co-creators Anouk Gleeson-Mead, Lois Scott, Eve Fitzgerald, Romaine McSweeney, Meike Dodd, Cindy Hu, Tove Due, Bridie Noonan, Bonnie Brown, Carla Tilley, Eve Nixon