IMMACULATE ENDLINGS

An absurdist piece of grotesque theatre, Immaculate Endlings deliberately mutates a patriarchal vertical realm. By destabilising rigid structures in the sacred and profane of the immaculate conception as a mother myth, the work carves out a personal space to celebrate and proclaim what is genuine and natural for a true eternal feminine.

Immaculate Endlings - the last of their species is set in the hull of a large fishing boat, the boat is going nowhere, in fact it has never left it's mooring. Inside a mother has given birth to what she believes are four immaculate conceptions, all now adult sons, she waits in anticipation of a fifth miraculous birth. She considers herself a perpetual virgin, and whilst she subsumes all the aspects of motherly love for her four 'divine' sons, each of them competes for her incestuous attention. Each of her sons has a fragmented memory of their past, and as the darker ocean begins to leak into the vessel, the sons are determined to escape what has become a psychologically fragmented and closeted existence with their eremite Mother.

The play was first performed by acclaimed Australian theatre and dance company Chapel of Change, and drew immediate attention for it's dark absurdist humour and transgressive content. It is Rainsford's first published play, of twelve works that have been performed, and includes a bonus work, a one act play titled Saudade - a Nightgarden.