Photographs above by John Kennan
This weekend I led a group of ten actors from Dismembered Empire and Sound Tracks performing in the Halloween Lantern Carnival in Sefton Park.
This year’s show had 150 performers, four enormous puppets, loads of giant puppets and thousands of lanterns made by the local community. About 20,000 people attended the performance enjoying five main stages and numerous roaming performers!
We were based on four stages centred around coloured stones forming an ancient stone circle. We were playing the Ministry of Relics on National Sites, M.O.R.O.N.S. (pronouced moronce!). Our job was to interact with the audience giving our inaccurate accounts of what the ancient stones were erected for and chasing away the nuisance hermits. Four enormous tormented ghost puppet lanterns, each insatiably hungering for food, love, peace and freedom approached the stones at which a mystical ritual was performed by hermit and heartbearer to relieve the the ghost’s suffering. The ghost then span in satisfaction and passed on happily to the next life. This was followed by lively music, stunning fireworks and energetic dancing.
A beautiful and entertaining evening. We had a marvellous time! We got lots of great comments from the audience that they had really enjoyed the evening as we collected donations towards next years carnival after the show, which we look forward to immensely!
Pictures below by Mycroft Milverton
