don carlos, or, royal jelly
Performance, text, video
Don Carlos, or, Royal Jelly is incestuously and whimsically enamoured with Schiller’s and Verdi’s Don Carlos. It queers some of the main characters and presents the court as a (non-re-)productive beehive, but with a darker subtext (filicide, the terror of the Inquisitor), and draws parallels to avant-garde promises of revolutionary upheaval.
Don Carlos, or, Royal Jelly is part of My Little Enlightenment Plays, a series of texts, performances, and installations.
Performances:
Company Gallery, New York (2016) with Corina Copp, Josef Kaplan, Lanny Jordan Jackson, Luke McMullan, Emma Attwood, Jocelyn Spaar, Holly Melgard, Yates Norton, with props by Anna Moser
Arnolfini, Bristol (2017), with live electronic sound by Rhodri Karim, photos (above) by Lua Ribeira
SALON London (2018)
[SPACE], London (2019), with live electronic sound by Rhodri Karim
Video credits:
Written, directed, and performed by Sophie Seita (2019)
Filming: Katarzyna Perlak
Edit: Katarzyna Perlak and Sophie Seita
Music: Rhodri Karim
Voice-over dialogue: Emma Attwood and Sophie Seita
Sound mastering: Rupert Clervaux
Exhibition (video):
Heong Gallery, Cambridge, part of We Are Here group show (2020)
Sound pieces:
Pale Face and Happy Face (2017)
A sound piece, attached to two masks, to be listened to with headphones
Text, concept: Sophie Seita, with music by Rhodri Karim
Voices: Sophie Seita and Emma Attwood
Pale Face and Happy Face masks originally made by Anna Moser for a performance of Sophie Seita’s Don Carlos, or, Royal Jelly, Company Gallery, New York, 2016
Duration: 2:48 min
Red-Baiting (2017)
A sound piece, with a headdress, to be listened to with headphones
Text, concept: Sophie Seita, with music by Rhodri Karim
Voices: Sophie Seita and Emma Attwood
Headpiece originally made by Anna Moser for a performance of Sophie Seita’s Don Carlos, or, Royal Jelly, Company Gallery, New York, 2016
Duration: 2:19 min