A HAG SIDESHOW AT HIDDEN FESTIVAL
The door swings open into a darkened theatre.
“Do you dare meet the women you were warned about?”
Peering into the dim-dark, we see at the far end, a tall dollhouse, its many windows flickering with dancers. On one wall projected neon ‘Dance Every Day’. On another bold carnival posters proclaim the spectacle of muses The Lover, The Seeker, The Warrior and The Keeper, all old women in their glory. A strange song hums surrounding us with eerie anticipation.
Dollhouse by Christine Hickson
The door closes. The audience gathers around the dollhouse, swallowed by the dark. The humming stops. The show is about to begin. Waves of wallpaper ripple on the main wall, revealing five cabinets cloaked in red velvet curtains that move without breeze.
Then a woman’s voice:
“Welcome
To the doll house
To the dance house
To the House of Hags
How is it we transition, transform from one house to the next?
Roll Up Roll Up
Come see the show.
These treats have long been hidden.
Tonight, the veil will lift for those brave enough to gaze on what is behind these curtains.
Not quaint nor quiet.
These are truths too old to be denied.”
One by one the curtains rise. Five hags appear full length then walk forward to stare at those who would stare back: the Night Hag, the Cailleach, the Baba Yaga, the Spider Grandmother and finally, Gaia, each in her own cabinet of power.
Dance house by Christine Hickson
They had come for a sideshow.
What they got was a reckoning.
And a dance. Always a dance.
Dance by Fagyn Gwyther-McCuskey
ABOUT THE WORK
The Hags is a cinematic sideshow of feminist force—a live performance featuring five digital hags as projection exhibits, presided over by a live dancing hag: Madame Yum. Narration is pre-recorded, allowing the artist as performer to channel presence over persuasion, letting the body speak.
Each hag embodies an archetype of old female power drawn from global cultures, reframing the often-dismissed figure of the old woman as the apex of wisdom and resistance.
Using sideshow aesthetics to turn the tables; rather than gawking, the audience is invited to see themselves, to recognize the inner hag with delight and daring.
Created from personal hauntological research and deep love for carnival and circus, the projected cinematic image is a fitting portal. This work lives at the intersection of feminism, myth, and memory. It is joyful. It is strange. It is unapologetically powerful.
ONE NIGHT ONLY
The Hags premiered from the heart of a creative city at Hidden Festival, an intimate night of underground performance and experimental art tucked in secret laneways and spaces in Ballaarat on Wadawurrung Country. Audiences were guided in small groups of fifteen, encountering work by eight commissioned artists in tucked away places. The audience was eclectic: curious newbies, seasoned culturati, elders, children, family and friends.
Hidden Promo Vid by Andy C.
One woman whispered afterwards, “You have given me something tonight – something deep, wrapped in joy. Thank you.”
REFLECTIONS
The creative process was gloriously chaotic, until it shifted suddenly into solid. The work moves between the miniature and the monumental, the domestic and the mythic, allowing the hags—these women I’ve known for years—to speak their power.
Creating The Hags taught me that digital projection mapping can stretch time and scale, surrounding the audience beyond traditional borders. Technically, merging live performance with choreographed media was a challenge, but that constraint became the strength. Emotionally, I found myself both inside and outside the work—performer and witness, storyteller and dancer, both a digital hag and a present hag.
At the core The Hags asks:
What if a city listened to its artists?
What if a society listened to its elders?
What if we listened to ourselves – and saw ourselves in these hags we are becoming?
WHATS NEXT?
The Hags will travel. The digital components are flexible enough to install the piece in galleries or immersive spaces and the dollhouse has been altered to allow ease of travel (thanks Paddy). I’m keen to develop alternate live performances, perhaps in collaboration across place, practice, and generation.
Eventually, I imagine a full carnival of feminine power—more hags, each hag a guide. And merch!
If you’d like to talk with The Hags, or accept invitations to meet your inner hag… I dare you to step right up – and dance every day.
Credits
Concept, Direction & Performance: Erin M McCuskey
Film & Projection Design: Yum Studio
Cast: Deborah Wood, Robyn Sedgwick, Kylie Supski, Erin M McCuskey, Louise Sherrard
Crew: Gabi Erin, Sophia Livitsanis, Dulcie Corbett, Cody Winward, Megan Finlayson, Bryan Putt
Tech: Yandell Watson, Spencer Harrison, Bryce Carter
Props: Erin M McCuskey, Paddy Caulfield
Costume: Erin M McCuskey, Clare McEldew, Linda Franklin
Performance Photography & Video: Christine Hickson, Fagyn Gwyther-McCuskey, Meda Designs, Andy C
Presented at: Hidden Festival, Ballaarat, on Wadawurrung Country
Commissioned by: City of Ballarat – Anindita Banerjee, Justin Weyers, Jesse Lubitz
Commissioned Artists: Annelise Belladonna, Spencer Harrison, Erin M McCuskey, Christine McFetridge, Diana Paez, Stefanie Petrik, Kirrily Urquhart and Daniel Williams.
Mentor: Yandell Watson from the Centre for Projection Art.
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