by Marcia de Deckere
Evolution. In practice and performance. I have never seen it so fully unfold as I have in this production. CRUSADER was first presented to me as the title “Darwin’s Law”. Naturally, I imagined it to be involving microscopic organisms, single celled amoeba and lizards. Lots and lots of lizards. So you can imagine my culture shock when it went to the wild, wild west and cowboys, and demons, lots and lots of demons.
The process of creating this story had an omnipresence of a snake, biblical legends and scientific dogma hovered over our heads during rehearsals. As if they were all butting heads, vying for superiority and in turn the ownership of our lives. Which side will dictate what we believe next? I still wake up in the middle of the night from dreams of a demon trying to suck my soul out of my body. A demon with cold, cold eyes. And I scream but no sound escapes my thought.
Our demons are all around us. Our angels, our heroes, our reason, are all there too. When we have seen the terror we can create with our mind, one cannot help think of the beauty, wonder and compassion we can create as well.
