Frigid Festival Previews

Jet of Blood or the Ball of Glass

Produced by No. 11 Productions

Author: Antonin Artaud

Jet of Blood or the Ball of Glass is a visceral exploration of violence and the power of art.  Audiences should expect an experience that is as much an art exhibition as it is a music concert as it is a puppet show as it is live theatre.  Musicians, artists, dancers, designers, puppeteers and actors have created this production as a personal response to violence in our world today.  Actors push the limits of physicality while a live band pushes the limits of musicality.  This intimate production engages all five senses and is intended to shock.  There are also scorpions.  Lots of scorpions.  

Movies, videogames, the war in Iraq — violence is ubiquitous.  Jet of Blood or the Ball of Glass confronts violence head on and digs to the root of it.  We are bombarded by a cacophony of images everyday, and this production intensifies this discord to lead to a reassessment of modern life.  Our aim is to explode the boundaries of theatre through the intense inclusion and redefining of other art forms.

Artaud writes without any regard to physical or spiritual boundaries; he furiously enters directly into the territory he wants to explore.  We wanted to use his play as inspiration and courage to enter directly into unknown territory.  No. 11 Productions is committed to creating theatre that juxtaposes seeming reality with the unpredicted, and of all the plays we have encountered, this play is pregnant with imagery and ideas of the unexpected.

Ryan Emmons, director