Rite of the Butcher
Part One of the Desert Trilogy
Created and Performed by Ben Spatz

A visceral fable about the power of fantasy, as told by the Butcher - refugee, criminal, shaman - through poetry, martial dance, and folk songs in an invented language. This interdisciplinary work opens new doors for solo performance by combining embodied abstraction with contemporary themes.

The Desert is a series of evocative meditations on deserts both real and imaginary, a solo trilogy integrating song, movement, and poetry through human action. It draws on a range of contemporary images to explore themes of power, fantasy, and apotheosis.

This project proposes to integrate Ben Spatz's long-term research into song cycles with a theatrical approach to poetic text and physical action. The first part of the trilogy, Rite of the Butcher, premiered in 2011 and will be shown throughout 2012.