What happens when Cupid and Death get their arrows in a muddle? Chaos ensues!

It's 1653 and the Puritans have banned English theatre. Lyricist James Shirley, composers Matthew Locke and Christopher Gibbons create 'Cupid and Death', a 'masque' for domestic performance - an insightful comment on society’s failures and the beauty and ridiculousness of humankind.

We will be performing this masque next year on 30 and 31st May 2014 at the Cafe Church in Glebe. A cast of talented and fun loving performers and production team will take our audience back to the 17^th century for a robust, historically informed production, complete with period instruments and singing styles, dancing, costumes and staging.

The amazing singers Richard Butler and Nicole Thompson will be performing, alsoThe Early Dance Consort, directed by Fiona Garlick and John Barnard. We also have an ensemble of period musicians to make this masque come to life.

We want to transform our performance space into a place where the line between performer and audience blurs: We want you become a 17th Century audience, so don your hat and bring your most witty interjections (but please leave the rotten veges at home)! We also want to use a performance space that would be similar to the playwright's intentions, with the audience and performers in very close proximity, rather than seated in rows in an auditorium. If you fancy being part of the cast for the night, you can buy your way to fame in true Elizabethan style - we need five audience members to assist with stage props on the night.

We love history! We've been studying Cupid and Death and the world in which it was written. We're not aiming for a slick modern production, we want to bring you an essence of mid 17th century life through performance, because the most enlightening lessons are the ones we experience ourselves. We are also working on a web page to document our production journey, giving insights to our creative ideas and historical explorations. Visit our site and stay connected with our project: www.cupidanddeath.com

Our biggest expense will be our performers - we need about 16 cast members and their time and skills are valuable. We believe that we have set our minimum target to a level where we can just make this happen - we'll have to keep selling tickets to cover our additional costs!

We have deliberately not specified a location yet, as our budget is as yet unfixed. In keeping with Locke's original intentions, we would like to find a 'domestic'-like setting for our performance - a space that will naturally not hold a large crowd. We would like to do at least 3 performances so our show can be seen by many.

A challenge for us will be to get the word out there - we'd love our supporters to share our show with family and friends!