Kinga Michalska

How lovely it is to be eaten!
How sensual to be disintegrated into pure energy and return to the cycle.

Rot Hat is a messy, boisterous and joyous work. It’s an ecstatic release and a speculative ceremony to decompose back into the earth and pass through the portal of life and death. With humour and disarming vulnerability, Nate Yaffe reminds us that we are not only consumers but also consumable; that our bodies will one day die and nourish new growth.

The work is live each night — Nate improvises sacrificial rituals helped by Ben Grossman on the Hurdy Gurdy, Thea who coaches Nate throughout the performance, and Nien Tzu who lights the action in real time. Together they recall long lost songs of joy and grief, and medieval dances with logs and rotting fruit.

Nate taps into his neurodivergent body-logic, and becomes the sacred clown. With a subversive naïveté, he reverses the normal order to seed creation through chaos.

Artistic Direction, Choreography & Performance: Nate Yaffe
Music Composition & Performance: Ben Grossman
Dramaturgy & Performance: Thea Patterson
Light Design & Performance: Nien Tzu Weng
Set Design: Elly Reitman
Costume Design: Courtenay Mayes
Assistance in Set Research: Lari Jalbert
Production: Le Radeau