THE BUTTERFLY WHO FLEW INTO THE RAVE

Oli Mathiesen with Lucy Lynch and Sharvon Mortimer present the award-winning The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave, an endurance-based dance work to the booming techno album Nocturbulous Behaviour by Suburban Knight. Hot off their Australian stints at Liveworks 2024 and Melbourne Fringe, we’re so thrilled to have this mind-blowing performance take over the Theatre Royal stage for our closing festival weekend. Seats are (partially) out, come prepared to join the rave! 

Exploring the movement vocabulary used in techno and rave culture, a contemporary nightclub between 3 bodies emerges. Relentless movement, seamless without pause, detailed down to every beat. The atmosphere and culture of a 3-day rave condensed into a high art, streamlined performance where you watch the destruction of 3 human beings commence in front of you. Indulge in the pain, the sweat; a display of pure endurance to achieve a goal. A spectacle of the human body as a victim to music, as a victim to passion, as a victim to our endless desire to achieve more. To win and win again.

Resuscitation on repeat. It is the come up and the come down all in one and highlights the beauty of feeling alive but all the consequences that come with it. It’s an ode to the past 3-year marathon of losing societal morals and political structure. Our communal loss of work, time, love, sex, eating, fighting, cleaning, holidaying, sleeping, pashing, drinking, throwing up, everything, physicalised as an artifact of what we as a people have endured. And just like listening to a love song that sings to that one breakup you had, The Butterfly Who Flew Into the Rave is an acid house remix that screams f**k you to the pandemic. 

“As an exploration of human endurance – the show does exactly what it set out to do. The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave is the coolest version of the beep test I’ve ever seen, and as an audience we’re locked in, rooting for their success whilst in awe of their prowess. Go and vicariously get your cardio in for a month!” – Art Murmurs 

Artistic Credits:
Creator, Choreographer, and Performer: Oli Mathiesen (Ngāti Manu, Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi)
Choreographer and Performer: Lucy Lynch (Ngāti Kahungunu)
Choreographer and Performer: Sharvon Mortimer (Ngāti Porou)
Producer and Stage Manager: Abbie Rogers (Ngāi Tahu, Te Arawa)
Production Designer and Operator: Bekky Boyce