Shezad Dawood’s digital edition A Mystery Play - Chapter VI for Sedition is an extract from his short film A Mystery Play, 2010. The latter was staged and filmed entirely in Winnipeg, Canada, between the Playhouse theatre, the Manitoba Legislative building and the Winnipeg Zoo's lion cage and looks at the meeting ground between Vaudeville and the Occult as twin histories in the city of Winnipeg. In particular, Dawood reprises his interest in Buster Keaton as well as his connection to Harry Houdini with the film.

The film references aesthetics of early twentieth-century surrealist films and avant-garde theatre and is structured into multiple chapters, with A Mystery Play - Chapter VI focusing on gambling, in particular roulette. Duchamp’s Monte Carlo Bond comes to mind, but as so often with Dawood’s practice, what is intentional citation and what is associated at random is left a mystery.

A Mystery Play was commissioned by Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art.

Credits:
Written & Directed by Shezad Dawood
Produced by Noam Gonick
Executive Producer: Antony Kiendl
Cinematography: Stephan Recksiedler
Music Composed by Michael G. Mills
Edited by Deco Dawson
Funding provided by Canada Council for the Arts, Manitoba Arts Council, Winnipeg Arts Council