No commandments. Only propositions.

Brink and The Wrestling School undertook a considerable and highly ambitious project with The Ecstatic Bible, Howard Barker’s immense collage of fragments and resonances that encapsulates the scope and vision of his entire canon. The play is an alternative and contentious history of civilisation, a provocation to the Bible, a new genealogy of morality, of wanting, of fear, of possession, of love.

Following discussion, workshops and editing with the playwright in both London and Adelaide, a final draft was ready, and the difficult logistical task of dividing and rehearsing the 500 page, 8 hour text began.

The passion, commitment, and inspiration behind this collaboration saw a unique opportunity to bring to the stage a testament for the millennium, a work of sheer poetry, beauty and scope it could explode the mundane and force us to recognise the true impact of theatre when it is freed from the constraints of the commercial stage.

The Ecstatic Bible collaboration

It took three years to create an eight-hour epic performance, rarely experienced in theatre today.

A co-production with The Wrestling School UK.
WORLD PREMIERE

CREATIVES

Directors Howard Barker + Tim Maddock
Designer Mary Moore
Composer Michael Smetanin
Lighting Designer Ace McCarron
Sound Jeremy Rowney
Producers John Molloy + Victoria Hill
Company Manager (The Wrestling School) Chris Corner

CAST

The Wrestling School
Sarah Belcher, James Clyde, Gerrard McArthur, Sean O’Callaghan, Ian Pepperell, Alan Perrin, Julia Tarnoky, Victoria Wicks

Brink Productions
William Allert, Syd Brisbane, Lizzy Falkland, Victroia Hill, Richard Kelly, Gerald Lepkowski, David Mealor, John O’Hare, Susan Prior

Flinders University
Emma Beech, Craig Behanna, Nathaniel Davidson, Cameron Goodall, Kate Kelly, Lex Lindsay, Ksenja Logos, Charlotte Rees, Paul Reichtenstein, Alirio Zavarce