Red is an immersive performance experience inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s Mask of the Red Death. It addresses our encroaching fate, and the general complicity of global north societies in climate crises. In the Mask of the Red Death, the privileged distract themselves with entertainment, convincing themselves they are exempt from the plague wreaking havoc on the poor. In Red, the audience is set in a social environment of contemporary entertainment that is slowly subverted until the audience themselves become subjects in the heart of the crisis.

In act one, performance vignettes of aerial circus and urban dance unfold throughout the crowd, reflecting humanity’s narrative of homo deus. In juxtaposition to the live performance, sourced images of global crises caused by climate change are projected. These images are rendered visually beautiful and abstract. As act one progresses, the apotheosis narrative of the performances becomes injected with the shadow of inevitable consequence.

In the second act, the climate crisis, or “death”, has arrived at the party. Projections surround the audience with images of forest fires, floods, landfills, mines, and overcrowding. Lifeless bodies are suspended, suffocated in the material of their own making, and the final dance is one of mourning and loss. Red evokes a cathartic experience through examining our collective guilt and repressed fears for the future.