[CANCELLED] INFERNO – NOT I

SATURDAY 23/07/2022 @ 7:30pm [CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER CONDITIONS]

SATURDAY 23/07/2022 @ 9:30pm [CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER CONDITIONS]

A programme triptych:

1. Not I & Pas Moi by Samuel Beckett.  Actor Clara Simpson
2. Inferno (from The Divine Comedy) by Dante. 33 Cantos read by  33 Live Voices
3. Dido’s Lament by Henry Purcell & Amazing Grace.  Singer Ruby Philogene MBE

Duration 50 mins

Ticket Price: £20 (includes entrance fee to caves)

NB Please arrive no later than 15 minutes before event start time.

NB Early Booking advised due to limited capacity

NB: Suitable only for able bodied, no disabled access.

Descend 100 or more steps into the cool subterranean temperature of 50 metres below earth.  A ferryman will take you in one of three silent boats to a cavern on the other side where three sinkhole rivers meet.  Seated still in your boat, you will listen and watch Samuel Beckett’s Not I performed high in the darkness (10mins).

You will then disembark from your boat to the sound of Samuel Beckett’s Pas Moi and Virgil, a soul-guide will lead you deep into the caves in single file to walk through a soundscape of the 33 cantos of Inferno from Dante’s The Divine Comedy read by 33 local souls in a babel of languages.  This is a performance against a backdrop of a frenzied running river, dripping ice from 150-250,000 year old stalactites above onto flow-pots of frozen tears below.

At the point of Moses’ Walk the waters will divide for your passing and upon reaching Journey’s End you will hear the plaintive strains of Dido’s Lament.  With the formal event ended you will be led back to the light above earth with the more joyful hymn of Amazing Grace.