Kantanka revives an ancient stories while also investigating issues of cultural ownership that surround the translation and re-interpretation of folkloric myth. Inanna’s Descent leads audiences into a subterranean nether world. Underground, beneath the hum of the city, an archaeological dig site unveils an ancient myth, erotic love rites, tales of death and resurrection emerge from rubble beneath the spectators feet.
Over five thousand years old, the story of Inanna, Goddess of Heaven and Earth, is credited as being the earliest known piece of written literature. Written in cuneiform script on clay tablets, it is only during the past sixty years, that archaeologist and researchers have been able to piece together the broken fragments that make up this remarkable story.
Inanna’s Descent was performed in an underground car-park at the Masonic Centre in Sydney.
Co-Directors: Carlos Gomes and Michael Cohen
Composer: Felicity Fox & Gene Gill
Set Design: Joey Ruigrok
Sculptor: Shigeyuki Ueno
Costume Designer: Janine Hilder
Projections: Graig Walsh & David Thomasson
Performers/Devisors: Michael Cohen, Carlos Gomes, Katia Molino, Chris Murphy, Dominic Sweeney, Yumi Umiumare
Photo: Heidrun Lohr
Supported by Australia Council for the Arts, Create NSW, Performance Space.