Curtains, Thrones + Empire is a new spoken word experience by poet Oli Higham — a fierce, vivid retelling of the Book of Revelation as an act of resistance.

 

Far from being a cryptic prediction of the future, Revelation is an urgent, poetic critique of the Roman Empire: its violence, wealth, and seductive power. In this performance, Higham draws back the curtains to reveal the thrones and beasts behind empire, both ancient and modern.

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Blending spoken word, storytelling, and live music, Curtains, Thrones + Empire creates an atmosphere that is by turns haunting, electrifying, and hopeful. Words pulse and clash against rhythm and melody, drawing audiences into a world where cosmic battles mirror everyday struggles for justice and truth. Revelation’s strange symbols — dragons, scrolls, burning cities and a provocative harlot  — become startlingly familiar, not relics of a distant past but mirrors of the systems we live under now.

 

This is not a dry theological lecture. It’s a collision of poetry and prophecy, protest and praise. It’s a call to imagine a different kind of empire: one not built upon domination but, instead, framed by curtains and a slaughtered lamb.

 

Whether you know Revelation inside out or barely at all, Curtains, Thrones + Empire invites you into its strange and powerful vision — to see the end of the old world, and maybe, just maybe, the beginning of something new.