Exeter Alternative Theatre return to the main stage with their first production in almost 18 months: ‘Crowley’ – an artistic homage combining theatre, performance art, magickal ceremony and poetry to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the birth of Aleister Crowley, the infamous occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist and mountaineer, whom the press dubbed “the wickedest man in the world”. Self proclaimed ‘The Great Beast 666’ a Vanity Fair profile in 1915 summed him up as: “…a person of so many sides and interests that it is no wonder a legend has been built up around his name. He is a myth. No other man has so many strange tales told of him.”

Whilst his name is one that many will recognise, who exactly was he? Born on 12th October 1875 he studied at Cambridge University and after leaving there joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, rising quickly through the ranks.
Whilst on honeymoon in Cairo, Egypt, in 1904, he claimed to have been contacted by a supernatural entity named Aiwass, who provided him with The Book of the Law, a sacred text that served as the early basis for his self created religion Thelema. Announcing the start of the Æon of Horus, the book declared that its followers should adhere to the code “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law” and seek to align themselves with their True Will through the practice of magick. In 1920 he established the Abbey of Thelema, a religious commune in Sicily where he lived with various followers until he was deported by the Italian authorities following scandalous reports in the press of orgies and sexual misconduct.
A recreational drug experimenter, bisexual & an individualist social critic Crowley gained widespread notoriety during his lifetime. He has remained a highly influential figure in western esotericism and counter-culture and is still considered a Thelemite prophet. In 2002 a BBC poll ranked him as the seventy-third greatest Briton of all time.

For ONE night only EAT bring the Great Beast to the stage

Tickets £13

Contains some nudity and sexual content

http://www.barnfieldtheatre.org.uk/