Follies of God

The Baghavad Gita—an ancient Sanskrit text considered to be one of the holiest scriptures of Hinduism—has reverberated through thousands of years of human history, inspiring both Gandhi’s non-violence movement and the Third Reich’s program of genocide. Follies of God sees celebrated Sydney-based dance artist Raghav Handa collaborate with sound artist James Brown to explore the complexities of the Gita and its many interpretations through the ages, illuminating uneasy truths about the very human impulse to manipulate language in order to exercise power. Handa’s sharp and inventive choreography is set against sung and narrated Sanskrit verses, manipulated live to create a sonic expansion of space. The mortal is deified and the god humbled, in an embodied exploration of the seduction of violence. Follies of God transports us into the eye of the storm: the epic battlefield of the Bhagavad Gita, where violence rages at the edge of our perception.

Following its acclaimed debut as a work-in-progress finalist at the 2022 Keir Choreographic Award, Performance Space has commissioned Follies of God as an astonishing full-length performance, making its world premiere at the 2022 Liveworks Festival.

Audience Warnings: 15+, Use of Haze, Loud and Sudden Noises, Adult & Sexual Content, up to a minute of flickering light