A show staged on a lake; inspired by Botoccelli’s famous painting, The Birth of Venus.
Performed in the traditional Victorian Boating Lake of Platt Fields Park Manchester, as the Finale event for The Garden of Delights in June 2005.
Giant shell designed and built by Bryan Tweddle and Mike Lister.
Choreography by Carla Shacklock
Original musical score by James Atherton of Oldham Theatre Workshop, including songs sung by Venus and the choir.
Staging “Birth of Venus” on the lake was a central element to the Garden of Delights, The lyrical effect of water splashing into water, the possible lighting effects and the pastoral nature of the environment work together to evoke a lyrical beauty and create a spectacular Finale.
This was a development of the work that Avanti Display made over ten years. Avanti Display’s exploration of water in performance started with The Fountain Machine, followed by Mr. Lucky and The Spurting Man and then developed Hydromania, the site-specific large-scale water spectacular.
Hydromania, large scale site-specific water performance, has been characterised by its urban location. Performed on the lake itself, “Birth of Venus” was responding to an inferred pastoral setting, that helped to develop classical references that characterised this performance event.
Birth of Venus was performed in an ornamental garden in front of Oldham Art Gallery on 24 October 2004, as the climax of a community lantern procession. We made the surface of Venus’ shell from withies and tissue paper to match the lanterns. There was a choreographed dance element to the performance that worked well in the context of the garden. Combining the performance with a community event worked well adding a particular charm to the performance.
