Events

Dine With Death – A Promenade Performance
Grand Entrance and Gamble Room
Simon Costin’s ‘Dine with Death’ is a biennial dining performance event influenced by the figure of Jean Des Esseintes, hero of the 1884 novel ‘Against the Grain’ by the French novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans.  Each event plays homage to a particular artist, this year the influence is Barbara Jones's illustrated book ‘Design for Death’, 1967, described as: an extraordinary study - part grim, part comic - of the "beautiful, vulgar, frightening and propitiatory things that people make when confronted by that shocking and unwelcome reminder, the death of another".

Simon Costin will appear as Death, arriving at the entrance to the museum in a horse-drawn hearse.  Twelve invited guests, or mourners, who span the worlds of film, costume and set design, performance art and fashion will meet him.  Follow them and Death’s open coffin in a promenade through the museum to the elaborately decorated Gamble Room.  Take your seat, witness the spectacle and dine alongside Death if you dare.   Make-up created by Alex Box.

18.45 Twelve mourners wait at the Grand Entrance
19.00 The arrival of Death, played by Simon Costin, at the Grand Entrance
19.05 Promenade through the Museum
19.20 Mourners seated in the Gamble Room and dining performance begins
19.25 Lament sung by Ski Jordan
20.30 Magician performance
21.05 Shadow puppet show of Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Raven’ by Jenna Rossi-Camus, Roberto Sanchez-Camus and Simon Costin.

Con Brio
18.30–21.45 Grand Entrance
Chill out with a drink with UK electronica artist Dave 'Con Brio' Millar, who has toured alongside the likes of leading electronic artist’s µ-ZIQ, Plaid and Venetian Snares. Music accompanied by a selection of short films by Theatre De Strange’s Richard Mansfield - uncovering dark worlds and bizarre creatures emerging from the depths!

i (2007)
18.30–21.45 Gallery 47F
The eye is a window to the soul in this snapshot of a terrifying moment only partially revealed.
A gripping short film directed by Luke Losey, Neath Films Ltd.  Part of the Soho Rushes Festival 2007.

The eye is a window to the soul in this snapshot of a terrifying moment only partially revealed.
A gripping short film directed by Luke Losey, Neath Films Ltd, part of the 2007 Soho Rushes Festival.

Running time: 3 minutes, looped 

Onibaba (1965)
18.30–21.45  Japan Gallery 45
Film start times: 18.30 & 20.10
Directed by Kaneto Shindo this film is a haunting black and white, claustrophobic tale featuring the imposing mask of Hannya and draws on the Buddhist fable ‘The Mask with Flesh’.

Certificate 15. Contains scenes of nudity and occasional violence.

Running time approximately 100 minutes, looped.

Japanese Lanterns
18.30–21.45 Sackler Lunch Room 1
Scissors at the ready! Join comic illustrator and Artist in Residence Karen Rubins as she explores the demon figures of Japanese folklore in a unique lantern making workshop. Places are limited. Please sign up at the workshop.

The Book of Witches
18.30–21.45 Sackler Art Studio
Explore witches from Disney to the Salem witch trials, in fairytales and folklore with Catherine Walsh of East London Printmakers and create a block print of your own witch to add to a collaborative hand printed ‘Book of Witches’. Places are limited. Please sign up at the workshop.

Un-dead Portraits
18.30–21.45 Lecture Theatre
Learn the tricks of trade with theatre make up artists Mel Winning and Moira Thomson.  Be transformed into Dracula or the Woman in White and have your un-dead portrait taken in a specially made booth. Places are limited. Please sign up at the workshop.

Theatre De Strange
Theatre and Performance, Gallery 103
Sit in on two fabulously dark fairy tale performances using a unique style of Silhouette Saucery!  The shadows are brought to life by Cath Connolly and Richard Mansfield and narrated by Caroline Partridge. Places are limited.

19.45 & 20.45 Suck-A-Thumb  (5 minutes)
Konrad is a bright young boy, kind of heart and full of joy but...he has a terrible addiction that can only end in one painful and bloody way! Not for the faint hearted.

20.15 & 21.15  Doctor Fox (8 minutes)
Maryanne Lamb is pretty and wise and is about to marry her sweetheart, the dashing and debonair Doctor Fox.  Maryanne Lamb is desperate to see Doctor Fox's castle so she goes on a perilous mission!

Talks, Tours and Behind the Scenes

Join V&A curators, guest curators and historians on an exploration of the darker figures of folklore

Hannya and the Art of Noh
Elegant Accomplishments, Japan Gallery 45
Talk times: 19.00 & 19.30 (20 minutes) 
Join senior curator Greg Irvine as he explores the origins of masked performance in Japan.  Learn of the transformation of a beautiful woman into the demon Hannya, as illustrated in the play Dojoji (Dojo Temple). Meet at the Noh mask display.

Which witch wished which wicked wish?
19.00–21.30 Prints and Drawings Study Room
Join Emma Laws, Frederick Warne Curator of Children's Literature, as she uncovers the witches and demons in the V&A collection.  Explore the way illustrators have depicted witches from the 18th century to the 21st century in this display of prints, drawings and published editions of children's books and fairy tales, including prints and original drawings by Margaret Tempest, Edmund Dulac and David Hockney. Large bags can be left in the cloakroom at the Grand Entrance.

Ghostly Tours
19.10, 20.10 & 21.10 (30 minutes)
Meet a personal friend of the late Queen Victoria as he explains his fate and leads you on a ghostly behind the scenes exploration of the museum. Places are limited. Free tickets are available from the Grand Entrance Information Desk from 18.00. Meet at the foot of Stair A in the Grand Entrance.
The tour is accessible via lift. Please notify the tour leader of particular access requirements.

The Cloaked Fiend in Film
19.15–20.00  Hocchauser Auditorium, Sackler Centre
Kevin Jackson author of ‘Bite: A Vampire Handbook’ explores the history of the vampire through film with documentary film-maker David Thompson, accompanied by the London Vampyre Group .
Followed by a very special screening of Nosferatu (1922) at 20.05 (Running time: 94 minutes)
Places are limited. Free tickets are available from the Grand Entrance Information Desk from 18.00.

Wicked Enchantments
National Art Library, Reading Room
Talk times: 19.30 & 20.15 (3o minutes)
Explore magic during the witch hunts with Joyce Froome, curator at theMuseum of Witchcraft, and her colleague Kerriann Godwin.  Join an intimate talk offering a glimpse into the defiant and visionary subculture of people who risked death to practise love spells, healing charms and spirit invocations - illustrated by objects from the Museum of Witchcraft collection. Places are limited. Free tickets are available from the Grand Entrance Information Desk from 18.00.

Halloween Feast
18.30–21.30 Grand Entrance and Café
Fend off the local demons with garlic and pumpkin-inspired munch and luck-inducing apples. Prices vary. Food is served until 21.00 and last orders at the bar are 21.30.

Potato Wedges with Vampire Mayonnaise
Spiced Devil Hot Wings
Anchovy and Olive Roulade

A Cauldron of Hot Pumpkin Soup
Roast Garlic, Butter and Onion Tart
Slow Roasted Duck with Blackberry and Bitter Chocolate Sauce

Baked Witches Apple with Cinnamon