RITES OF PLAY
2025
Performance
MusicNadia Bakhshi
Lyrics Amanda Payne
Performers
Nadia Bakhshi, Amanda Payne
MusicNadia Bakhshi
Lyrics Amanda Payne
Performers
Nadia Bakhshi, Amanda Payne
Two governesses preside over a shifting playground of sound, memory, and myth. They summon forgotten rhymes and playground chants, weaving invented folklore to guide mystical creatures (the audience, the self, the child) through colorful portals of transformation.In this absurd yet urgent sonic plea to the great beyond, wordless vocalizations and children's rhymes are layered with electronic textures and looping rhythms.
Each loop unfolds as a tightly choreographed ritual: dense, self-contained, and rhythmically recurring, like the endless motion of a skipping rope. The governesses lead clapping games, chants and invite the audience to participate in the ritual of becoming. Through playful repetition, echoes of past innocence, identity and imagination converge. What begins as a child’s game becomes a rite of passage, a haunted lullaby for the thresholds we cross to grow up, and the strange creatures we become along the way.
Each loop unfolds as a tightly choreographed ritual: dense, self-contained, and rhythmically recurring, like the endless motion of a skipping rope. The governesses lead clapping games, chants and invite the audience to participate in the ritual of becoming. Through playful repetition, echoes of past innocence, identity and imagination converge. What begins as a child’s game becomes a rite of passage, a haunted lullaby for the thresholds we cross to grow up, and the strange creatures we become along the way.