Written by Rachel Mars, Our Carnal Hearts was part of the 2017 British Council Showcase at the Edinburgh Fringe where it won a Total Theatre Award.
Rachel Mars creates innovative, idiosyncratic and highly accessible work that plays with form and audience/performer relationships; and investigates the way ideologies affect personal actions, inherited cultural behaviours and the limits of comedy. Revolving around sharp, witty and observational text that often references and sends up modes of popular culture, her productions interweave personal reflection with universal questions addressing politics, identity and place.
Featuring a choral score sung live by four female singers, Our Carnal Hearts is a bold, genre-smashing performance interrogating envy and competition. With the audience placed on four sides, Mars creates an interactive / direct address space which draws from live comedy and religious ritual. Conceived after the 2011 London riots, when rage at inequality tipped into looting and the accumulation of 'stuff', the show looks into our personal relationships with jealousy; and the political systems and social media cultures that underpin those feelings. Provocative and funny, the work ultimately asks ‘What do you want, why do you want it and what are you prepared to do to get it?’
Our Carnal Hearts in Australia
Melbourne Fringe
20 - 23 September 2018
Theatre Works
Melbourne Fringe is a celebration of cultural democracy and art, embracing diversity and a spirit of independence in Victoria.
Brisbane Festival
26 – 29 September 2018
Theatre Republic
Brisbane Festival is Australia’s major international arts festival and Queensland’s largest cultural event, which attracts an audience of over one million people every year.