The Sleep mixes early cinema techniques, toy theatre, magic lantern, rock concert, and Big Art Group’s Real Time Film technique into a live see-through movie adapted from M. P. Shiel’s 1901 story, “The Purple Cloud,” in which a lone explorer races to the North Pole while a poison purple cloud covers the earth. His subsequent return to the remnants of civilization drives him into a crisis of being, in a classic “last man” adventure that eerily presages catastrophic climate change. Music by Theo Kogan, Sean Pierce, and Jemma Nelson.

Collaborators:
Direction and Video Installation: Caden Manson
Sound and Dramaturgy: Jemma Nelson based on the book by The Purple Cloud by MPShiel
Music: Theo Kogan, Sean Pierce, Jemma Nelson
Voice: Theo Kogan
Guitar: Sean Pierce
Objects, Animation, & Performance: Jonathan Farmer, David Commander
Performance: David Commander
Production Manager: Linsey Bostwick
Video System Designer: Jared Mezzocchi

Images:

Creation History:

2007
Notte Bianca (Rome Italy)

2008
Wild Project (Workshop Showings in NYC)

2009
Festival Escena Abierta (Burgos, Spain)
Exodos Festival (Ljubljana, Solvenia)
Hebbel Am Ufer (Berlin Germany)

2010
Abrons Art Center (NYC)
Kampnagel Internationales Sommerfestival (Hamburg, Germany)

Funding: Greenwall Foundation