Chaotic Monsters

So, as it may or may not be clear from previous posts and videos, there is a giant prawn in my show.  A chaotic, unruly pink individual with jaunty movements and gurgling screeches, tempered with slow and deliberate flashes of wide-eyed staring and low, breathy cackles.

The physical essence of the prawn - in terms of its sound and movement - was born in a clowning workshop with the wonderful Peta Lily.  She'd get us all warmed up and then say something like "...ok, going around the room with movement and sound like.. asparagus!", and we'd just have to respond without thinking.  One time she said "...prawn" and the rest is history.  But today, in the shower, I started to think about how I've developed the prawn and the role I've given it within the show: the prawn is meddlesome, unnerving and unpredictable.  It possesses the other characters (mostly Jewel), taking over from them on stage, often  when they need it least, messing with their stuff and mercilessly ridicules them.  It became clear to me, without too much effort, that the prawn respresents the madness behind the order and regiment of beauty pageants (albeit in quite an abstract way, but hey, that's the style of the show); the idea  that something is not quite right.

Anyway, I suddenly realised what it reminded me of: a recurring, lucid dream I have about a chaotic monster.  A very specific kind of chaotic monster: one that feeds on fear.  It usually has a very sketchy, wiry outline, usually comprised of matted fur and nasty claws with wild, soul-devouring eyes.  I'm pretty accomplished at lucid dreaming, so I usually see the beast and instantly know that it represents the darkness in my soul and that I should show no fear - just grab it and laugh into its eyes (at the risk of my soul).  This is precisely what I did last time, when it appeared in the form of a horrible cat that flew at and subsequently attached itself to my face with its gnarly claws.  I grabbed its head, stared into its portal-to-hell eyes and said "F^*K YOU!! F^*K YOU!!" to which it replied "YEEEEESSSSSSSS! F**K ME!!" Well, that was an eye opener.

So...to take away? Not a lot really, just me observing a connection.  But, perhaps, the idea that, no matter what form our creations take as artists, we're ultimately just working out / becoming better acquainted with our own issues: presenting them on a stage for the whole world to see so that they scare us less / start to make more sense.  Hardly an original idea, I know, but one that I find fascinating nonetheless.