BABALON, A Fable of Rocketry, Sex and High Magick

A Single Performance (With a cameo appearance from Mark P...)
Gielgud Studio Theatre, RADA
Malet Street, London W1
£7.00 tickets from RADA Box office -  020 7908 4800

This play, originally written for radio, explores the enigmatic life and mysterious death of Jack Parsons (1914-52). Parsons was a pioneering American rocket scientist, disciple of the magus Aleister Crowley, and passionate devotee of Lady Babalon, the Scarlet Woman of the New Aeon.

Rockbrands highly stylised production, rehearsed at Treadwells Bookshop meeting rooms, reinforces the resonance of the text with soundscape and visual projections to create unique moments of ritual theatre. There are also elements of dark farce and tragedy as Parsons apocalyptic vision is subverted by hostile forces. The play is set in the 1940s as the American OTO was coalescing, and arguments about succession were flying around. Most of the action takes place in California, where an increasingly manic Parsons spirals out of control with his Scarlet Woman, his friends worried but inspired by Thelemic precepts.
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A few scenes are set in the UK, where we meet Aleister Crowley and Frieda Harris, and their prickly relationship is expressed with verve. We see Crowleys effect on his followers, and the dysfunctionality in the relationships is never hidden.

Paul Greens plays include The Dream Laboratory, The Aleph (CBC Radio Canada); Ritual of the Stifling Air (BBC Radio 3); Powerplay, (Capital Radio); The Mouthpiece (Resonance FM); Terminal Poet (New Theatre Works). Director Alison Rockbrand founded Travesty Theatre and the Dead Dolls Cabaret in Montreal. Her productions include the collective creation Mumbo Jumbo: King Leopolds Opus and a rendition of Macbeth including stylised dance gestures based upon the Kathakali dance tradition in India. In February 2006 she is directing Stuart Drapers Departure Lounge in the Prompt Corner at the South London Theatre Company. The Babalon cast are made up of practising occultists with theatre and acting backgrounds. There will be one performance ONLY. Tickets for Babalon may now be purchased via the RADA Box Office on 020 7908 4800.