1997 Princes Wharf No 1, Hobart
1992 Festival of Sydney
1990 Premiere - Salamanca Arts Festival, Hobart

An opera in three parts, sung in ecclesiastical and modern Greek, that explores imagery associated with the schizophrenic condition, Days and Nights with Christ is for four solo singers, and a dancer (Christ). Musicians, electro-acoustic instruments, winds and brass stand on a podium close to the audience: placed in this way, they bind spectators and performers. The spectators are seated in two tiers that face each other, and the Christ figure between mirrors them all.

The production occupies a seemingly endless space, yet the work achieves intimacy - emotion is deep within, working subtly on the spectators' feelings and perceptions. Christ turns the agony of schizophrenia inwards. He is Everyman, alone and vulnerable. The movement of Christ is deliberate, dance-like, hypnotic, through a vast landscape marked with mountains of salt and gigantic blocks of ice. He crouches and slides through dead leaves, then is bathed by his Mother whose refrain - the signature of the composition - plays like a Greek Orthodox chant. Her voice and gesture are charged with pain and compassion.

In this work Christ is a powerful symbol of isolation: spiritual alienation of the individual, and social or cultural displacement of the collective. At the end of the performance a sign appears to suggest healing and hope - a stupendous angel trailing a white parachute. She delivers a small key to Christ, which may (or may not) open a door to salvation.

Days and Nights with Christ was first performed in September 1990, at the Salamanca Arts Festival in Hobart.

View the 1997 Poster for Days and Nights wth Christ (PDF)


Reviews for Days and Nights with Christ

The Mercury, 1991 (PDF)
Press Press, 1991 (PDF)
The Bulletin, 1992 (PDF)
The Saturday Mercury, 1992 (PDF)
Sydney Morning Herald, 1992 (PDF)
The Australian, 1997 (PDF)