The Devil, Chess; A Burlesque!
The pin is mightier than the sword as the bishops seduce then murder two of the knights in a choreographed sexual dance
In the first big foray into the performance world, FoulPlay under the direction of Jack Stigner staged a radical burlesque performance centred on the devil and the medium of Chess.
This was not a cabaret style sequence of acts, but a protracted game of chess performed by four male Knights and four female Bishops, accompanied in game by the King-in-pawns-clothing and the black queen-become-devil. No mere titillation the show was a dark and disturbing tour de force educating and confounding the audience, confronting them with scenes of both sexual indulgence and sexual violence, brutal rape, orgies and seeming chaos.
It was from this point that the first seeds of what would become the FoulPlay Method began to sprout.
The cast included: Jack Stigner, Ulysses Black, Annie Brooks, Sarah X. Delmonte, Han Nicholls and Astral Delamare, who would go onto perform in subsequent FoulPlay Productions.
The show ran at the Pressure Point during the Brighton Fringe 2007 and then onto sell out shows and five star reviews at the Zoo Southside during the Edinburgh Festival.
Ulysses Black performed and provided the digital/printed design materials for this production.
One of the bishops pledges her allegiance for the ensuing match. "We ate heretics for breakfast"
May 2007
Brighton Fringe
Aug 2007
Edinburgh Festival
Writer and director Jack Stigner took the role of the clergyman who wrote a guide on chess tactics, was then revealed as the black queen and eventually the devil in a series of staged spectacle moments, and the phases of the game shifted and turned.
The knights, the 'muscle' were all equipped with big maglites to both shift lighting and to harry the audience.
A folding chess board was used to divide two flanking audience for the majority of the show, with the FoulPlay knights breaking up partners and groups at the beginning. Pictured here (from unknown audience photograph) is Han Nicholls and Alex Mannion Jones, Edinburgh Festival. Zoo Southside 2007.
FoulPlayer Chloe Penney pledges allegiance FoulPlay took promotion on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh to new heights and depths and were escorted by stewards from the promotions strip daily.
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