Sisters Grimm and James Cousins join forces to explore the Balinese philosophy of dualism through Bali’s legendary character of Rangda, the “demon queen” and present their interpretation of her back story as a betrayed woman who ultimately seeks her revenge on those who banished her, sending her into exile for being a witch.
Our protagonist, the exiled and now widowed Bali Queen, enters slowly with an offering. She kneels and lowers the pot of burning incense to the ground. She closes her eyes and begins to sing a haunting melody over a beautiful musical score combining rich melodies and harmonies inspired by the mystical sounds of the Gamalan. The piece ends at the height of rhythmic energy with Bali Queen raising a morbid army to rain down disease destruction and death on all those who betrayed her.
“We’ve thought about this a lot and we want to be really clear about the fact that this is our interpretation of the character. And we have built our own story around this character Rangda from their legend. We are hoping to bring a different light to his woman, within the context of this global meaning of witch for women, in our own way.”
