What is Sacred Drama?

Sacred Dramas are ritual performances of ancient myths, usually involving God/desses and archetypes. Similar to the mystery plays of old, Sacred Drama fuses dramatic play with ceremony and magic, and performances often include music, dance and meditation. Because Sacred Drama works on many symbolic levels, it can be a deep, transformational process for actors and audiences alike.

Our Sacred Dramas are often big, interactive productions with large casts, phenomenal costumes and masks, hypnotic rhythms and enchanting ceremonial elements. We tend to perform in line with the major Pagan festivals, such as Samhain and Beltane, to utilise and intensify the powerful energies that are prevalent on those days.

We usually stage the plays in the framework of Temple Events - creative, joyful, lively and occasionally scary nights that interweave drama with dance and celebration. So far, performances have taken place in the West Midlands, but we are open to bringing Sacred Drama to other places. If you are interested in booking an event, please contact us for further information.

PAST PRODUCTIONS

Beltane Temple of Sensual Delights
 30 April 2006, Moseley, Birmingham                          

This event, which took place on Beltane Eve, was focused around the Lover archetype, in particular that of the Sacred Prostitute. Inspired by the ancient Priestesses of Venus, who served the Goddess on Mount Erice in Sicily, we transformed the venue into the Temple of Venus, with masses of red velvet, a gargantuan love altar, seas of candlelight, and many of Lydia Ruyle’s beautiful Goddess banners.

Four women, all embodying the Lover archetype in her different aspects, presented powerful pieces of performance art throughout the evening:  Salome, Priestess of Venus, told her story through poetry, dance and movement. Mandy presented a poignant monologue on the shadow side of prostitution; Elizabeth performed a piece on the loss of love; and the joyful sexy Beltane energy poured out through song from Hazel.

Apart from performance art and ritual, the night was filled with ecstatic rhythm and dance, a delicious and bountiful love feast, appearances from the Green Man and Adonis, and a cosy chill-out room with massage, oracles and general loveliness.

Due to popular demand, Salome and her Temple Priestesses will doubtlessly re-emerge at a forthcoming Beltane! Salome is also available for performance art bookings.

Samhain Temple of Transformation / The Descent of Inanna
11th November 2006, Leamington Spa                                          

In this production, we adapted an ancient Sumerian myth called ‘The Descent of Inanna’. The story focuses on the Goddess Inanna, who one day decides to journey to the Underworld, the domain of her sister Ereshkigal, Queen of Death. Although this is an impossible feat, because only the Dead enter the Underworld and do not return, Inanna feels compelled to set out on her perilous journey, during which she dies and is reborn in many ways.

Adapting and staging the story was an ambitious project with many months of preparation by a strong and diverse group of artists, including Coventry Earth Spirit’s Barry Patterson and Anne Barrowcliffe; Priest/esses of Avalon Brian Charles, Jacqui Woodward-Smith, Hazel Loveridge and Pamela Gaunt; Mandy Kasafir of Birmingham’s Barefoot Boogie; and Drama Therapist Monika Rauscher.

For this performance, we interwove drama, storytelling, music, dance, meditation and ritual into one interactive event, and the result was a profound transformational process that moved and changed everyone involved. This time, the setting was a Sumerian Temple with the Upper World and the Underworld positioned at opposite sides of the venue, and included a central Samhain altar dedicated to the ancestors.

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