Button Eye Productions to Present THE ORCHID & THE CROW, 13-22 Feb

When death looks you in the eye, whom do you turn to? Your psychologist? God? ... Or Lance Armstrong

Button Eye Productions present the premiere of The Orchid & The Crow - a tragi-comedy about faith, sex, identity and ritual, created and performed by Daniel Tobias and directed by Christian Leavesley as part of the The Coopers Malthouse resident artist initiative.

Reflecting on Daniel's real life (and almost death) experiences, The Orchid & The Crow is a solo performance that also features original songs from the award-winning writers of Die Roten Punkte.

At eight days old Daniel's secular Jewish parents chose to have him circumcised. Having not read the fine print in the Old Testament, this unknowingly triggered God's ongoing contract with the Hebrews. In return for following his rules, God promised to look after the Israelites.

At 29, Daniel is an atheist, single and living the life of a bohemian artist in Carlton. And lo, God was not pleased! Appalled with Daniel's lifestyle choices, God makes an example of him and appears on earth to smite him with stage three testicular cancer. Stage four is death.

As Dan prepares for his upcoming treatment he is left in a spiritual vacuum. He is reaching for faith in something, but he's certainly not going to find it in a deity who has already stolen one of his balls. Instead, Daniel finds salvation in an unlikely modern messiah, seven-time winner of the Tour de France and testicular cancer survivor Lance Armstrong.

Now of course, Armstrong is a fallen angel and after Daniel's full recovery, he wonders - how many times will he be cheated by a God?

Created and performed by Daniel Tobias, director - Christian Leavesley, dramaturg - Casey Bennetto, script consultant - David Quirk, songs - Daniel Tobias and Clare Bartholomew with John Thorn and Jherek Bischoff.

Developed with the assistance of the Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Victoria, Besen Family Foundation and Bryce Doherty.

Image by Andrew Wuttke

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