MITOSIS

“Mitosis – An LSD Opera”, directed by Brandy Butler (USA, CH), is a hybrid piece combining theatre, opera, and musical theatre in an immersive and intimate format. It tells the story of a woman who receives a terminal cancer diagnosis and chooses to work with psychedelic substances in a clinical context as a way of confronting her own death.
The piece raises questions about how we die and what we can do during our lifetime to prepare for death, while challenging the taboo surrounding death in our society. The title «Mitosis» refers to the phase of cell division: a process of growth and regeneration – and the prerequisite for life, for mutations and thus also for cancer. Sometimes humorous, sometimes deeply moving, the play tells the story of a woman who believes she has lost everything – until she realises that losing everything can be the first step towards truly living.

At the end of the opera, Juana Ferrari, who works as the video artist alongside contributing to the set design, proposes a video composition projected throughout the stage, bringing the narrative to a close. Drawing on the cliché of the “flashback” of our lives that supposedly appears before we die, and blending it with digital languages and social media content, Juana documents the artists involved in the production (performers, musicians, director, assistants, etc.) and collects and encrypts an archive of people close to the team who have already passed away or are approaching the end of their lives.

Direction and concept: Brandy Butler
Music composition: Brandy Butler, Annie Goodchild, Ramón Oliveras
Music production: Ramón Oliveras, Daniel Eaton
Video: Juana Ferrari
Micorscopic images: Carlos Gomez Revello (Microuruguay) and Juana Ferrari
Stage design: Bettina Kirmair
Costumes: Paula Henrike Herrmann
Dramaturgy: Eneas Nikolai Prawdzic, Noa Winter
Access: Noa Winter, Juana Ferrari, Liam Rooney
Production assistance: Stanford Chen, Anora Ismailova
Production management: Giordana Patumi
Performers: Annie Goodchild, Brandy Butler, David Attenberger, Ivy Montiero, Ruth Schwegler
Stage construction: Jonas Borner
Technical direction: Emiliano Larre