The Scales of the World

The Scales Of The World is an allegorical story following the life of a tree and a man as they are both cut down. The story is presented in several short sections, each of which takes both branch and man on a transformative journey from riverbank through to a flooded world. Each section is represented through a mythical, reptilian being and invites the audience to travel on a journey of reinvention and transcendence.

Prelude - Cracking. A thunderstorm moves down from the mountains and lightening strikes an ancient willow tree. The fallen willow is carried by the river before rooting into the ground and growing upwards again.

Chapter 1 - The Willow Snake. A man is cutting willow by the river to make a basket as a present for an absent lover. As he works a Willow Snake encircles his wrist before he is struck dead by lightening. He falls to the ground amongst cut
willow branches. The willow roots again into the earth and grows up through the body of the man.

Chapter 2 - The Glass Snake. The man enters a spirit realm, a world of confusions. He is confronted by a Glass Snake which challenges his concepts of reality. The man perceives a hot-air balloon passing overhead with a basket hanging beneath it, and beneath that a rope. He reaches for the rope but the rope shatters into a million glass shards and he is lost within the refracted light, falling into a glass vase.

Chapter 3 - Moura, The Eyed Lizard. The man finds himself at the entrance to an underground tomb or gateway. The path is guarded by a Moura. The Moura invites him to enter this other world and to accept his fate.

Chapter 4 - The Great Serpent. The man passes into the earth and meets the Great Serpent, Maxa’ xkuk. The serpent is liquid and solid simultaneously. Its presence signals a great flood that will engulf all the land, swallowing the man along with it. Two branches from the ancient willow tree are carried by the tides to the opposite poles of the world and begin to grow. Each tree produces a single fruit and each fruit contains a single life, and a new beginning.

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Music - Richard Luke 
Vocals - Alex Rigg & Breezy Lee 
Lyrics - Alex Rigg 
String Arrangement - Greg Lawson 
Violins - Fiona Stephen & Greg Lawson 
Viola - Liz Wyly 
Cello - Juliette Lemoine 
Harp - Stephanie Irvine 
Pipes & Whistles - Ollie Rigg 
Percussion - Anders Rigg 
Guitar and Piano & Electronics - Richard Luke 
Strings recorded live at Cottiers, Glasgow by Mark Mckellen 
Mixed and engineered by Richard Luke 
Mastered by Andy Baldwin at Metropolis 
Cover design by Alex Rigg and Kim Martin

Dancers - Jen Farmer; Suzi Cunningham; Malcolm I Sutherland; Dylan Read; Aaron Jeffrey; Camille Marmié; Rosamund McCormac; KJ Clarke-Davis; Philip Alexander Macdonald; Laura Victoria Ward.

Choreography - Alex Rigg & Bill Coleman.
Written, Designed & Directed - Alex Rigg