Cirxus
"Burton-esque, Poe-esque, Munch-esque, a distorted group of characters embodying the spirit of there being "nothing funny about clowns at midnight", lead you through a dreamlike promenade performance set in an atomically overshadowed 1950s circus. The lighting was ominous and the random groans reverberating through the warehouse added chillingly brilliantly to the sinister tone. The cast fully embody their characters...all the actors do a great job of being engaging, humorous, sympathetic or downright scary...Writer and director, John Harrigan deserves a lot of credit for the organisation of this brilliant cobweb of a performance, and for making something that could have gone so wrong, go so well. It's a great juggling act, worthy of the big top. "
★★★★ Andy Marchant, Remotegoat on 'Cirxus'
"The stark and industrial setting for this piece of promenade theatre is instantly eerie and unnerving. The lighting is dim, the space echoes and bizarre characters creep up on you. Harrigan completely smashes down the fourth wall as the audience, walking around the space, become entangled in the piece. The experience is simultaneously funny and disconcerting....Much of the excitement of this piece comes from its mystery, so I am loath to give anything else away. Cirxus is a place of the unknown and should remain so for those of you yet to enter this demented playground."
★★★★ Rachel Sheridan, What's On Stage on 'Cirxus'
"I was filled by an overwhelming sense of loss; lost love, lost memories, lost identities and ultimately lost minds. It was actually very Samuel Beckett-esque, and it struck me early on that the characters' wait for the answers to their plight was tantamount to waiting for Godot."
Heleana, Qype on 'Cirxus'
"This is a show that is often baffling but always intriguing...There is some fine language: 'I want to spew up undigested truth,' cries one character, though you won't necessarily always understand it. There are some strong performances ...they all deserve the applause that the production denies the audience from giving - there is no curtain call."
Howard Loxton, British Theatre Guide on 'Cirxus'
Dead Language
"Dead Language imagines a future in which the work of art stars like Banksy is so popular that fans trade in the DNA of the artists themselves, creating clone gangs of Emins and Warhols that roam the city.
In part, Dead Language is an investigation of the limits of intellectual property rights, but it also a smart and spirited examination of the way that the value of art shifts with time and context."
Ekow Eshun
Artistic Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts & Cultural Commentator
"And that reminds me, Fuck your performance art - FP is magick and that’s what we came here for whether we argue about it or not. FP is beyond the predispositions we hold, whether you believe or not, once there in the metaphorical circle they’ve cast around the environment you know something potent is unfolding before you, for those with eyes to see, I suggest it resembles the moment the lotus bursting into blossom. Art on the inside, Blood on the outside - if you are not sacrificing for your art and magick it is lifeless and begging to be infused with a portion of what you are given from out of the depths of the nothingness and beyond - FoolishPeople know this and their work resounds their experience in it’s potency, divinity, and splendorous beauty."
"Obvious survivors of the harshest of Nova conditions, FoolishPeople's performance of Dead Language at EsoZone in Portland shimmered with life force and various less identifiable radiations. Could this be the first theatre requiring tinfoil hats? Whatever the reason, John Harrigan and the other members of his troupe move on stage in a way you can feel all the way in the balcony. Their combination of esoteric symbolism and ritual elements provides an interactive, gnostic experience that will leave you feeling...different. Come see a challenging vision that will leave you scrambling to establish digital rights management for your soul. I cannot recommend attending the next FoolishPeople performance strongly enough. After all, someone should probably be keeping an eye on them."
Bill Whitcomb
Author
The Magician's Companion
Terra-Incognita
On March 31st I entered the 'rabid hole' at Gallery 491 in East London.
Sucked into a strange world filled with strange creatures, strange noises and strange objects, I felt utterly at home. I found myself in a manifested vision of Gnosis, so intimately known to me.
In this wonderous place, one was the dreamer and the dream, the observer and the observed. In those attending individuals capable to receive what was evoked, a tiny seed of gnostic realization has been planted – a seed well worth nurturing as it may grow and take you onto a journey leading to absolute liberation and freedom.
John Harrigan and his FoolishPeople troupe skilfully engaged all senses in a way that any resistance to becoming fully engaged was futile and one had to surrender to a magical myth unfolding – a myth of spiritual awakening and transformation. We witnessed and experienced the pains of mystical death and resurrection and the strange beauties and wonders of spiritual and esoteric realization.
On a personal level and interpretation this was the true magic of this night – the urging for all of us to begin to explore our inner Terra Incognita, the unknown world, the hidden universe that lays dormant as we are concerned only with the Eidolon and are caught in the archontic spider-web of the profane world.
Let us re-claim our lost spiritual heritage and establish again the ‘kingdom’ within and through this manifest a new world also in the outer.
It is possible, do it now!
David Beth - Tau Melchizedek
Sovereign Grand Master
Ordo Templi Orientis Antiqua, La Couleuvre Noire
‘Ecclesia Gnostica Aeterna’
Apostolic Gnostic Bishop
As audience, we offer these same congratulations in that we did indeed come away feeling like our heads had been turned inside out by about 1500 mics of L.S.D., despite the fact that we made the decision to remain completely sane and sober in order to know what we had really seen and what we had not.
All the cast were brilliant. Every one of them possessed their own
unique star quality, which under the direction of Mr. Harrigan were
truly allowed to shine forth. There were also some fine musicians to
entertain us, some incidental and others a part of the story, who would
be well worth the travel to experience all on their own.
Observing
the audience itself as much as the play offered another level of
entertainment. Particularly memorable was to have seen their reactions
to the very first spirit manifestation, a genuinely dark and disturbing
figure that appeared seemingly from nowhere- thanks to some very clever
distraction techniques?- and the fear on the faces of those he
approached and interacted with. I suspect that some of them went away
with their perceptions of ‘reality’ permanently altered. In a good way.
We hope.
Those who were not in attendance have truly missed out
on a uniquely mind bending experience. Shame on you. Make sure you
catch the next one.
Mandrake Speaks - Nathaniel J Harris, author of of Witcha- A Book of Cunning.
Ghost Redux
"Foolish People are one of the most magickal and cutting edge ritual theatre companies currently extant in the UK." - Oracle Occult Magazine
"When you have been running around this planet as long as I have you come to appreciate the pleasures that life/the dance has to offer. Last's nights 'ritual' performance of Cycle 2 of 'The Dark Nights of The Soul' was one of these.
As an 'event/spectacle' it was most excellent both visually and textually. I particularly liked the theme of 'shape-shifting' which coincided with the lunar cycle synchronistcially for it was a full moon. A Wolf Moon - traditionally associated with shape-shifting and transformation.
I would like in closing to say thank you and well done to John Harrigan and all The Foolish People who made last nights dark night of the soul a particularly unique and entertaining evening. This is theatre in the tradition of 'off-off-Broadway' - the fringe of the fringe.
For what its worth, I think John should be awarded with the awe inspiring honour of 'Magus of the Trygodia', a rare award given by the Dionysian Underground only to those who produce examplary initiatory Dionysian theatre, as yet unawarded to anyone, and with only three other candidates likely to recieve a similar honour in the near future (JC, OD and AR). "
Dark Nights of the Soul
Foolish
People's Dark Nights of the Soul is a truly unique production. By turns
darkly comic, surreal, horrific, genuinely thought provoking and
certainly not for the faint of heart. Verdict: Dark Nights of the Soul
is pure Fortean magick. 10/10
"There are a few times when you are sitting in a place and you have to think 'This is an iconic moment - something really important is happening here.' The Dark Nights is a shout to complacency - it's transgressive and antinomian, clearly inspired by the Chaos magic movement. YET (and it's an important 'yet').... it cries out to the sacredness of the Earth, to the living and alive relationships between people and Nature."
Dr Christina Oakley Harrington
The Singularity
The Singularity is nervous, convulsive, vividly compelling theatre. FoolishPeople engineer an exhilarating collision between Artaud and Cronenberg, to effect a total experience whose immersive power is deeply unsettling and relentlessly alive. This is a young company to watch... - possibly from behind the sofa.
Chris Goode: Fringe First Winner
