a performance piece created by Gillian McIver for Alchemy Theatre

“Step into the unknown. We begin in silence, in shadow, at the place where the veil between the visible world and the invisible is at its thinnest. Tonight, you will witness more than art—you will experience a journey into realms where the forces of nature, spirit, and magick collide. Let your mind wander. This is not a mere performance, but a passage… into the sublime.”

Intro: the Mind of the Alchemist, artwork by Gillian McIver

“We begin in the tangible world, at Stanton Moor in Derbyshire.
Where earth and sky meet at the edge of the sacred.
These ancient stones, standing tall since time untold, guardians of memory,
bearing Witness to rites long passed,
The stones invite us to listen—to feel the threads of magick
That still hum through their weathered shapes.”

photography, artwork by Liane Lang

“Now we pass through the thinnest point of the veil,
we leave the physical world and enter the afterlife.
This is the mythic space, where all stories and symbols live,
along with our dead.
We cross the threshold,
Stepping into the OtherWorld, where shadows whisper.”

collage, artwork by Shannon Rakochy

“What lies beyond the stars, beyond our imagination?
Heaven is nothing that you know—
it is a realm where no trace familiar lingers,
A paradise untamed, unformed, untouched by time.
Here, there are no traces of what we have seen,
No echoes of the world we once knew.
It is a space where all the known falls away,
And what remains is pure, unbound mystery'”

digital painting, artwork by Mohamed Elgamal

“For every Heaven, there is a Hell,
A shadowed realm where the light cannot reach.
In this place, demons creep, cloaked in flame and darkness,
Yet their true terror does not come from without—
It is the reflection of what stirs deep within.
What if hell is not forged of flames or endless torment,
But born from the fears we dare not face?
The despair that coils in silence,
The pain we bury beneath layers of silence.”

ink drawing. artwork by Naz Tanbouli

“Above all, there is the Divine,
Not seen by the eye, but felt in the soul.
Through a vision of pure, unearthly light,
We catch a fleeting glimpse of the infinite—
Eternal, vast, and unknowable.
It dances at the edges of our awareness,
A moment of clarity, brief but profound,
Where all that is, was, and will be
Coalesces into a single breath of the divine.”

carved glass; artwork Natasha Redina

*Alchemy Theatre is a collaborative project under the direction of Gillian McIver.

Into the Sublime is the first show in EIDOPHUSKION REIMAGINED, a contemporary art recreation of the 1781 theatre sensation Eidophusikon, or Image of Nature, a startling experiment in kinetic theatre design and special effects. It was made by PJ de Loutherbourg, an alchemist and ceremonial magician who was also a famous landscape painter and was the stage designer at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. De Loutherbourg was the first to bring special visual effects to the London stage— effects he created in his alchemical lab.

It is recreated by art historian and filmmaker Gillian McIver, author of Art History for Filmmakers. The new incarnation is developed in collaboration with many contemporary artists and musicians.

The piece is available for exhibition and future collaborations.