Ellie Pyle

Blood Brides: Tarot Archetypes and Elemental Theatre Ellie Pyle

Blood Brides is a one woman show which interweaves the stories of four women who married their husband's murder: Clytemnestra, Bathsheba, Igraine and Lady Macbeth. It was originally performed using a new technique of theatrical character analysis, involving the archetypes of the four Queens of the Tarot deck and their correspondences to the four Elements (earth, water, air, and fire) to analyze each character and inform the characterization. Traditionally, in some cultures, distinct character traits are associated with each of the four elements: air, fire, water, and earth. In the Tarot, these positive and negative qualities are exemplified by four archetypal Queens. This book contains both the script for Blood Brides and an essay on how the elemental archetypes were used to distinguish between the characters, create depth and inform the design concept of the show.