And I, the mistress of your charms,
The close contriver of all harms,
Was never called to bear my part,
Or show the glory of our art? - Hecate, Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR0MPk69Iao
Previously: I had checked into the McKittrick not once but twice in the last year. Is that all there is?
Regular readers: There will be theater borkery in this but don't fret! There's always room for the occult! Sleep No More readers: There will be occult borkery in this but don't fret! There's always room for the theater!
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All the perfumes of Arabia . . .(Jow's hand)[/caption]I will confess to something that's almost unheard of in the Sleep No More fandom: I was in no mood for the McKittrick last weekend. I just . . .wasn't. There's been too many hard things going on in my personal life, getting to NYC is always a pain in the ass, I was tired and I didn't feel like loping through a NYC sized block like a damned deranged antelope. But the tickets had been bought and a friend was visiting from Malta, so there really was no escaping the McKittrick that weekend. I also didn't have the best egregore/audience experience last time and there's been a lot of inevitable complaining about Sleep No More selling out to The Man/cast changes.
Now. I've only been twice so frankly I didn't have a chance to get that attached to the cast (even . . .as blasphemous as this will be, Careena Melia). I had never stayed after show, it was always too crowded and I was exhausted anyway so I've never, like, bonded with the cast. Also, personally, I go to see live theater for the reason some people hate it. I want to see other people's interpretation of a character. I want to see different motivations for a character. So, I was good on that account (though I did fall in fangirl love for the first time. We'll get there).
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The bloody business (my hand)[/caption]
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I like that I look like a slightly shy serial killer here.[/caption]As for general Damn the Man complaints, I'm all for theater being a profit making venture (Escandalo!), I went on a Sunday night and I didn't have any problems with the reserved seating area, it was a relatively small section of tables, in my opinion. And I for one desperately wish my nephew was old enough for Potions and Planting class (adorbs!).
Now we have that bit of Sleep No More politics out of the way, onward.
My husband, Jow and I were getting ready for the show. I decided to wear my ritual attire (as pictured) along with my resin crow skull necklace Because of Reasons and I did my hair up pretty and carefully constructed a made up face that no one would see (or would they?). I decided to go with Milk & Honey perfume from TAL which I usually use when I'm trying to shop for something specific or vendor mixed with a Come to Me perfume oil blend to see what would happen in the name of (occult) science.
Another generally unknown fact: My best form of personal divination is radiomancy which is a sneered upon art form among sneered upon art forms. Jow and I try to use Sleep No More as an initiatory experience for ourselves because Occultists/Pagans/Wiccans/Whatever aren't always great at theater in modern practice. A sad but true fact. Oh we can create lovely rituals that are full of magic and wonder but it loses something for me because it happens in someone's living room and not a cool Witches' Workroom though I am working on that in our own house.
We try not to go in with specific expectations but let's be real, we always have a mental checklist of things we want to see. For me it was to actually sit at the Manderley, drink some champagne, go through the "Narnia" closet (because, come on) and get involved in some Witch business.
So I did some radiomancy for both me and Jow. I do this by going into my big Spotify playlist and I put it on random and I hit fast forward a few times. Jow got "Maniac" by Kid Cudi/St. Vincent and I got "Cuts You Up" by Peter Murphy because . . .why should I ever have an easy spiritual experience in life? When discussing this, I tend to call Jow "Sprinkle Mist" because it's my way of enviously saying that he's the gods' favorite pony. They just want to braid his hair and feed him carrots and tell him how great everything he does is at all time. It's really irritating to watch when your gods treat you like you're Cadie from Mean Girls and they get to be Ms. Norbury ("Because I'm a pusher. I push people. I pushed my husband into law school. That was a bust. I pushed myself into working three jobs. And now I'm gonna push you because I know you're smarter than this.") Jow had an interesting theory though - that the gods tend to treat us the same way that we treat the people we love. When Jow loves someone in any capacity, he's the first to tell you how pretty your hair is and to listen sympathetically without judgement to whatever shit show you're currently engaging in. Me? I'm a pusher, Cadie. I don't bother pushing people I don't care about, it's not worth the time, effort and energy on my part. I have a reality television addiction to see to. If I really love you, I will get all Lady MacBeth on your ass faster than you can say "Spot".
We gathered our friends and headed out.
Miraculous Event The First: We got street parking for free. My car was there when we returned. We didn't get any tickets.
We made our way to the Manderley where Jow bought me a champagne St. Germain cocktail (served in my favorite kind of champagne glass, the coupe always makes me feel like an old movie star) and we managed to snag one of the only four person tables. In omnia paratus! We toasted. We board the elevator and I dawdle to be the last one off. The speech that the elevator operator/taxidermist gives has changed some which is good, it discourages a lot of the bad behavior that happened at my last visit. I found the crowd to be a lot more like the crowd was for my first visit - polite, respectful and looking for wonder. I managed to be the last one off and I dragged my feet as much as possible and stepped off. As I left, the elevator operator simply said, "Oh." Like I missed something. I was all, Nooooooooooooo! Sixth floor! And then I thought, cheeky devil. I don't think he had any intentions of ever letting me see the sixth floor.
I ran downstairs to the ballroom and immediately caught the Bald Witch. Perfect! I had witchy intentions for the evening anyway. It was just myself and a boy in plaid following her and she took off quickly with me and Plaid following where I immediately proceeded to trip and fall flat on my hands in an incredibly classy manner. I think BW and Plaid felt bad because they could hear me fall (though I didn't make a peep!) and get back up as quickly as I could as they slowed down. For me, I knew this was going to be a rough experience for me spiritually/emotionally right there. But as soon as we were in the McKittrick again, I felt that thrill of excitement and I had enough adrenaline running through me to bounce as if I were twenty again.
BW took me into her dressing room and stared at me right into my eyes while I tried not to fidget. She ran my thumb slowly across the back of her ear where her head was shaved and I stood as quietly as I could until she ferried us to the Blood Orgy Rave/Prophecy scene.
It was there I met Hecate. I fell immediately under Zhauna Franks' spell. I had only seen Careena before and Zhauna is . . .so different. Blond for one. Imagine Marilyn Monroe (as she really was, not as she was in movies) as a goddess of Witches and that's how it was. She flirted, she played but she had a razor's edge underneath her and an obvious intelligence about her. I remember thinking, this is what the Motherhood stage could look like without children. Beautiful, sharp and terrifying. Aware of one's own power and beauty with enough cunning to use it.
At the Blood Orgy Rave, I had always watched the witches cavorting because it's sexy and uncomfortable and there's a lot of naked bits being paraded around. For the first time, I watched Hecate. The way she inhaled her breath, the way she held her arms reminded me that once dance and witchcraft were not so far apart from each other.