The Velvet Veins

The Riley Award-winning black comedy, telling the tale of a kidnapping of a renowned fashion design amidst a messy feud between two royal siblings.

The Velvet Veins’ is a two-act melodramatic comedy for 10 actors that intends to shed light on the importance of centrality in modern society in a light-hearted manner. The two act play calls for audience members to search for balance between binary societal extremes: maximalism and minimalism, masculinity and femininity and wealth and poverty through a story of two clashing territories. Observers learn by the end of the play that contentment is fostered by experiencing and accepting a balanced blend of perspectives and values.

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The play is sent in a distant land where rival royal siblings (Chancellor and Empress) rule clashing territories. In an effort to reinvent and modernise himself, the Chancellor has his sister’s renowned fashion designer, Lord Ludwig Leonard Bizarre kidnapped and sets him to work. Meanwhile, the Empress’s land is distraught over the kidnapping. An investigation team of clueless, fashion-phobic detectives put on the case. Realising their incompetence, the Empress pairs them with a vibrant band of fashion students and artists with hope that their pooled knowledge will locate her beloved designer.

Ludwig leaves clues of his whereabouts in the garments he designs for the Chancellor’s television broadcasts, with details, patterns and fabrics symbolising his situation. It is the role of the detectives and artists to decode these under the watchful eye of the Empress.

But as he designs, Ludwig strikes an unlikely bond with his captor, connecting with his loneliness and ambition. This progressively blossoms into a cherished friendship that questions Ludwig’s concept of right and wrong. And once Ludwig is found by his much-loved Empress, he must decide which life is right for him: isolation and solace with the Chancellor or fame and adoration with the Empress.