Venus and Adonis 2027 are looking for TECHNICAL ROLES

Emmanuel College Chapel is staging a new and unique performance of John Blow’s Venus and Adonis to celebrate the chapel’s 350th anniversary in February 2027, and we are looking for a prodigious and pioneering production team to help us bring it to life! Whether you're a dab hand with lights, cameras or helping stage the action, we'd love you to get involved. Lighting and operating this production in the chapel setting presents new and stimulating challenges for a technical team, and we hope you're as excited about it as we are.

Often referred to as the earliest known English opera, John Blow’s Venus and Adonis tells of the tragic love affair between the goddess of love and a mortal huntsman. The traditional myth sees Cupid accidentally pierce his mother Venus with one of his arrows, and when she sets eyes on the handsome Adonis, she immediately falls in love. In Shakespeare’s poem, Venus takes on the role of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, in order to support and be with her new lover. Despite her warnings against the dangers of the hunt, Adonis is tragically killed by a wild boar and she is left to mourn his death.
In John Blow’s version, Adonis is the one who is desperate to stay wrapped in her arms, but she actively pushes him out the door to hunt, thinking that ‘treating him ill’ will keep him interested in her. She unknowingly sends him to his death, and her subsequent grief is amplified by an indelible guilt.

Roles available:
Lighting Designer/CLX
Technical Director/Stage Manager

Link here for more info and Director's and MD's notes, and to get a sense of the vibe we'd like to create! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w2Skvo_FQzVCXIsckCw_wgqj7WSGpe1_WSXavujPVyM/edit?usp=sharing

Contact cc2218@cam.ac.uk nr559@cam.ac.uk before 14th Oct 2026 00:00 for more details.