Edgar Allen Poe for our times

Award-winning Perth-based dancer Natalie Allen has teamed up with HotHouse Company, based in Bull Creek, north of Perth, to co-present a new immersive dance theatre work, IN CRIMSON, inspired by the eerie 1842 Edgar Allan Poe story, The Masque of the Red Death. 

Poe’s short story tells of Prince Prospero fleeing to his castellated abbey to escape from the Red Death, a plague that is spreading rapidly throughout the village. He invites noblemen to join him to retreat from the plague. They survive for months, so the prince decides to host a masquerade ball to celebrate their continuing existence, but at the stroke of midnight, death arrives, and they all fall dead to the Red Death.

“I love how Poe’s story is so relevant, it holds up a mirror to our current lives in the lingering Covid-19 pandemic," Allen says. "How the world became disconnected, our desire to connect, share intimacy and the loss of what we knew has been destabilising and transformative. I really want to honour this current time and acknowledge the individual experience of life, of death, and how we all individually come to terms with our finite end. That we can be the phoenix rising out of the ashes.”

IN CRIMSON features 10 emerging artists, all WA Academy of Performing Arts graduates, and original music composition by Pavan Hari. It is an adaptation and evolution of the work Stained in Crimson she created for LINK Dance Company in 2020. Seven out of the 10 emerging artists were in the original theatre production. The dancers in this production are Estelle Brown, Gabrielle De Vriese, Keely Geier, Allain Gumapon, Isabelle Leclezio, Natassija Morrow, Brent Rollins, Ada Sayasane, Nathan Turtur and Lucy Wong.

Allen's last presentation of her own choreography was the solo show, JULIA, co-created with Sally Richardson. Since then she has choreographed Cabaret for the graduating musical theatre students at WAAPA, and performed with Sydney Dance Company in Decadance for Sydney Festival, 2022, and Ab [intra] for the company's tour to France.