LE MARIAGE AUX LANTERNES

PREMIERE JERUSALEM JUNE 2021

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To enhance the delicious human behavior - and misbehavior - of the characters in these pastoral settings I decided to imagine them as birds. A young testosterone-filled, boasting teenage Rooster who wants to crow louder than he actually can and who has a hard time showing his love for our tender, very clueless, and virgin Dove. 

Two man-hungry widows (a Peacock and a Dodo) chasing romance one moment, and money the next. Sometimes friends, sometimes enemies, these lonely ‘frenemies’ don’t shy away from a good catfight, pecking and tearing out each other's feathers. 

And finally the wise Master Owl ‘our voice of reason’, who more often than not behaves like a drunk mad hatter. He appears like a deus ex machina simply to disappear again, a moment later, just as a magician would.

All these birdlike elements really made my head spin with creative opportunities and gave me the freedom to go more towards a fairytale, magical setting rather than the regular farmhouse setting. This will also be reflected in the costume choices Liat Golan and I created for our aviary. After the creative starvation of the last corona year, we wanted to go big or go home and decided on a Marie Antoinette, Rococo-esque styling of our French ‘macaroon’ characters, sexy, beautiful, over the top, detailed, colorful, with feathers and lace and bows and even more ribbons than good taste would allow!