- Title: USA: ROMAN-STYLE "VOMITORIUM" ESTABLISHED IN PROTEST AGAINST U.S. GREED.
- Date: 17th August 2004
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) CREATOR AND ORGANISER OF VOMITORIUM, DAWN LADD SAYING: "I think that it is about that for a lot of people more is just not enough and you just how rich do you have to be? How much do you have to own? How much power do you have to have? It just seems endless."
- Embargoed: 1st September 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Topics: Entertainment,Quirky,People,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVA1HGYXRYESKLWW9JPHL5SDJ96P
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: George Bush is making some political activists sick -- literally. A Roman style Vomitorium in New York protests U.S greed.
It's all about politics, protest and.....puke.
Ahead of the Republican National Convention, being held in New York at the end of the month, a group of political activists gorged themselves until they were sick, much like Romans used to do. "The Vomitorium" is a social comment on America, it's role in the world and the nation's gluttony, say its organisers.
Co-creator and organiser, Wendy Tremayne said, "It's an examination on empire, it's choosing the most gluttonous moment in the Roman Empire's history and inviting people to kind of get that."
The 90-minute event began with the Romans, dressed in traditional togas and in modern-day capitalist costumes, being fed copious amounts of food and wine by scantily-clad women. After entertainment from belly and fire dancers, and cavorting with prostitutes, the vomiting began.
The Romans stuck their fingers down their throats and vomited violently into a trough at the front of the stage. And in true Roman fashion, the vomitters, once they'd emptied their stomachs, went back for more food and wine. Torrents of sick were spewed into the trough, under the watchful eye of the "Mistress of the Vomit Pit" to both the disgust and delight of the several hundred-strong audience.
Caesar, played by Itsi Atkins, drew the biggest cheers after eventually managing to puke with an apple in his mouth. With a sick-stained shirt and beard he said after the event, "It took a while to get going and then it came, it was kind of in stages, but we had an awful lot of vomit in there."> It came naturally to "art-ivist" known only as Splinter, "I threw up easily, threw up many times and I made the crowd roar and cheer and I think that they saw what was going on." Jennifer Nordstrom, the only female Roman vomitter, had real problems performing her task and had to keep shoving a long stick down her throat. "I think I actually had more a problem than anybody else throwing up, I actually practised last night and it took me about an hour to puke, so it's harder than you think that it is," said Nordstrom.
"The Vomitorium" claims that the American Republic will fall as the Roman Empire did if it continues in its greedy pursuits. Co-creator and organiser, Dawn Ladd, said there's a message in the play for everyone, "For a lot of people more is just not enough and you just how rich do you have to be? How much do you have to own? How much power do you have to have? It just seems endless," said Ladd.
The audience got the message loud and clear, "To me it is a metaphor for the disgust that people have in our society," said one woman. Another added, "It's democracy in action and we are really using our right of free speech and puking it out."
While the creators claimed their vision was non-partisan, the volunteer performers, who ad-libbed their way through the play were clearly anti-Bush.
Shouting comments like "all war all the time" and "we are protecting American oil, Americans just need to keep driving" the performers made their own parallels between the Roman Empire and George Bush's America.
Steven Taylor-Roth, a data-entry officer worker by day and naked Roman statue by night, explained what motivated him to take all his clothes in front of hundreds of people, "Well I can tell the reason I did it -- George Bush has taken the shirts off our backs, literally for me and he has been raping us, raping our minds with the Patriot act, he has been raping our lungs with the air that we breath with his clear skies act and he has been raping our sexuality."
The Vomitorium is part of a growing wave of artful and imaginative protests set to swamp the streets of New York in the run-up to the Republican National Convention. Next week a group of women, clad in sexy underwear will will flash the message "Weapons of Mass Seduction" on their knickers to expose what they say are George Bush's lies. Another group of actors will dress up as American revolutionaries, charging through the streets of Manhattan attempting to save citizens from George Bush and the shackles of corporate tyranny. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
