Dr KOPPELIUS - AT THE SUBIACO STUDIO

Dr Koppelius
A Production by Malcolm Crisp
Original Music by ZENOMORPH
Designed by Jo Marsh


With: Alaina Harris, Bec Bradley, Catherine Fry, Drew Elliot, Gary Parker, Jo Marsh, Patrick Spicer, Renate Earnshaw, Shelly Hayes, and Warren Herbu

ZENOMORPH is Andrew Whitehead, Carl Hamilton, Chris Magnussen, and Adrian Bartholemeusz


After two sell out seasons last year the group that brought you 'an elektra' and 'A Radical Re-Interpretation: Chekhov's The Seagull' are commencing their 2001 season with 'Dr Koppelius' an original Post-Modern Rock/Horror Musical. Working with ZENOMORPH one of Perth's most creative rock/fusion bands, the E.T.A. Hoffmann's story of Dr Coppelia and his robot doll Olympia (best known from the ballet Coppelia) has been updated into the age of cloning and digital technologies.

Dr Koppelius is a story of how life is scientifically created and socially programmed. It is a love story mutated into a horror story by an evil genius who is himself the product of a world of sinister manipulations. This rock musical particularly explores the cultural philosophy of French thinker Jean Baudrillard in regards to how our knowledge of the world is generated by representations or copies of 'the real' and how society seduces us into accepting these 'simulations' as acceptable versions of reality. A cross between the Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Matrix, and a lecture on French Critical theory, 'Dr Koppelius' is a dark and sexy investigation into the what we are and why society wants to keep us that way...

What partially explains the success of this group is that they have fostered a cross-over audience between regular theatre goers, students of 'cultural studies', and the local music set who have, up to now, had little opportunity of hearing the best Perth bands outside the pub circuit. The group has also earned the reputation of not retreating from taking intellectual or physical challenges - both previous works found controversy by questioning current theatrical conventions and containing scenes of nudity and explicit imagery.

Season commences at the Subiaco Theatre Centre March 7th until March 10th

All performances Wednesday to Saturday at 8.15pm
Performance duration 90 minutes