“Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Fool is just one of the age old symbols or archetypes in the 22 Major Arcana cards of the Tarot Deck. In our January 2016 show, A Tarot Journey, actor Esther Purves-Smith plays the Fool and she will guide the audience on a journey through the cards. The Major Arcana cards are symbols for the energies that drive human nature, providing a dynamic template for our human journey. This template can be appreciated at many levels, perhaps most simply in a linear sense, as we all start life or any project as the Fool- the first card- and experience the ups and downs on a path to a better understanding of ourselves and our place in the Universe- the final card.

Please visit our blogspot A Tarot Journey Blog for a full list of the cast, and their characters.

Many people will be familiar with two and three dimensional Tarot Deck images, such as the classic Rider-Waite deck, Salvador Dali’s 78 paintings and Niki de Saint Phalle’s contemporary sculpture garden in Tuscany. This show adds a fourth dimension to the Tarot, namely, performance – combining song, dance, poetry, theatre and visual art. As Joseph Campbell says in The Power of Myth, “Myths are so intimately bound to culture, time, and place that unless the symbols, the metaphors, are kept alive by constant recreation through the arts, the life just slips away from them.” The upcoming show participates in this recreation, bringing the Tarot deck to life through performance.

Artistic Director, Laurie Montemurro through her production company, Lulu Goes West, is no stranger to Tarot performance, having directed the sell-out show Tarot Windows in 2013. Although the theme may be familiar, the upcoming A Tarot Journey is a very different production from its predecessor.

The 2013 show, Tarot Windows, was set up literally as an art gallery with a focus on Sudasi Gardner’s beautiful painted quilts of the Major Arcana . The guided audience moved from quilt to quilt, viewing still tableaus or moving portraits.

In the new show, A Tarot Journey, the audience is brought along with the Fool as she journeys through her tarot card reading, each interaction providing her with the choices to guide her own destiny. This rendering of the Tarot deck follows a more traditional theatre experience with the audience remaining seated as the action transpires on the stage in front of them.

Montemurro has teamed with Roxanne Cowles- MacPhail to co-direct the performance, with Cowles-McPhail creating original, contemporary Tarot card images for the show, such as the Fool, Lovers and Empress images included here. Each of the stellar performers created their own performance depiction for their cards, with input from the directors. The rehearsal photos are courtesy of Mike Van Santvoord.

Quaternity Platform is helping to produce and sponsor the show.

The show will be performed three evenings:
Denman Island Communty Hall, Jan 23, 8 pm
Hornby Island Community Hall, Jan 29, 8 pm
Studio Live, 2679 Beaufort St, Cumberland, Jan 30, 8 pm.