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Emilie Autumn concerts have been long-recognized for their theatricality and interactive nature, first emerging into the earliest incarnation of "The Asylum" after Autumn signed onto Trisol Records.

Story[]

All versions of her concerts during and after The Asylum Tour have had loose plots based on "The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls." This is more evident in later concerts in 2012, but the general theme has always been present.  To see the full story, visit the book article (linked before). 

The Bloody Crumpets each take on Inmate personas for the performance and the group, including Autumn, work in themes of acceptance and freedom in their Asylum.

Before 2007[]

Before 2007, during the first Opheliac shows and the entirety of the Enchant performances, Autumn's stage show was much like a basic concert. The stage was set up with the needed instruments and microphones, while Autumn dressed up in costume -- be it as a faerie or in a goth-Victorian fashion. It didn't follow any sort of obvious plot line as her later concerts did.

During Autumn's tours at festivals in 2007, the nature of festivals and slated performances prevented her from revealing a full set for her performances.

Skits[]

Autumn's shows have all featured a number of loosely-scripted skits that all the girls participate in, which is part of what makes the shows so unique. Sometimes (rarely) Autumn was known to stop the show to interact with fans trying to give her gifts (if the barrier moved them too far away from the stage for the fan to simply set it on the ground). They are listed in the order of their importance.

The Rat Game[]

The Naughty Veronica takes part in what is the most well-known skit of Autumn's concerts, known as "The Rat Game." During this piece, Veronica invites one girl on stage who is over eighteen and who has "never" kissed a girl before. She and this girl share a simple kiss (made to look incredibly naughty) on stage, which is surrounded with silly innuendos and jokes.

Unlaced Skit[]

Before Autumn performed "Unlaced" in some of the tours, Autumn and Veronica stayed on stage and had a small, sexually-suggestive skit where Autumn talks to both Veronica and the audience. Veronica is on her hands-and-knees during the skit, cleaning up the tea spills from the previous song; Autumn, at one point, sits on her back and rides her like a horse. The skit ends with Autumn telling Veronica she can play the Rat Game if she can play the harpsichord correctly during the next song. (Lead in to the Rat Game)

Reading Fanfiction[]

Introduced during the second Fight Like A Girl tour, Maggot reads fanfiction and both Autumn and Veronica act out the events. Autumn criticizes the audience for being so deplorable and writing such smut about them. This leads into the "Rat Game," which is their revenge on being objectified. (Lead in to the Rat Game)

Contessology[]

For the Door tour, there was a short skit in between songs where Veronica (after being the only girl on stage) acusses the audience of being inappropraite with her, during which she points out a girl in the crowd. Autumn "punishes" the audience by putting them at Contessa's whim. She says a prayer on the audience's behalf, which leads into "God Help Me."

Variations of this skit included a story of Contessa telling Veronica to do naughty things. Contessa prays for her soul in response, which leads into "God Help Me."  (Both lead in to God Help Me)

Introductions and Outro[]

During this part, a Crumpet introduces the Bloody Crumpets and Emilie Autumn to the stage. Various girls have done this, including Captain Maggots and The Blessed Contessa. When Contessa performed the introductions, she sometimes engaged the audience in a chanting game, where the full phrase was about eating all your "fingers and toes."

During the outro of the concert, Autumn interacts with each inmate. She flirts with Veronica, dances with Maggot, almost gets eaten by Contessa, etc. Carnival music plays in the background.

Miscellanious Skits[]

Face the Wall Conversation
While Autum prepares her violin for "Face the Wall," she talks to the audience about the show, the Asylum, and sometimes about the various items that have been thrown on stage by the audience up to that point.

Contessa Eats Humans
Contessa is hungry and eats all she can see on stage, but she's a cannibal - she wants humans, not pastries. She ends up spewing eaten cookie and tea all over the audience.

And Now For Something Completely Different
Before "Dead is the New Alive," Autumn criticizes the political issues of the day regarding Planned Parenthood funding. She is in support of maintaining the then-current funding plan instead of cutting money to the centers.

An Asylum Wedding
In some versions of the stage show, Contessa and Captain Maggot get married.

We're All Different
A longer skit involving Autumn poking fun at each of the Inmates "unique qualities," serving as a message that The Asylum stands for all types of people, no matter their differences or preferences.

Lady Cucumber & The Pole
An inside joke manifests on stage, where Contessa gets jealous of a new Bloody Crumpet. Said Crumpet is a simple cucumber; Contessa eats her. During the same show, Autumn also declares there's a second new Bloody Crumpet: a Pole. Said pole is a large supporting metal beam that's in the center of the stage, proving to be constantly in their way.

Costumes[]

Costumes from the Early Opheliac and Enchant eras were made by Emilie Autumn and her Mother. The Opheliac costumes were made by both Autumn and Vecona until 2008. After that, Autumn created her own costumes. 

Stage Set Design[]

The Asylum, The Plague, and The Gate Tour[]

StageSketch A4 580px

At the end of 2007, Autumn's stage show appeared in it's first from as "The Asylum." Between the beginning of this short tour and her festival performances, Autumn and her friends at Trisol designed the stage set themselves. Early in 2013, Autumn's hand-drawn designs were auctioned off on ebay.[1] This version of the stage was loosely based on "The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls."

The Asylum tour is the first tour to feature the stage-screen, which had not yet reached the clock design. It was a simple sheet with a gold-painted frame, which the girls stood behind to cast their shadowed sillouhettes. In some venues, ribbons, gears, and clocks were hung from the lighting rigs and ceilings as decoration. The harpsichord (keyboard) featured red-and-white striped cloth hanging over it and a small shelf to put dolls and decorations.

Until one of the Suffer the Bear (who appears on all stages during all tours) dolls was stolen in Rome during the Asylum tour, decorations were tied to the microphone stands. [[The Plague]] tour and the first half of the Gate tour featured the same set design.

The Gate II Tour[]

The second half of the Gate Tour featured the first incarnation of the Rat Clock, which was a large stand-up oval frame with a screen framed with decorations. Autumn hand-made the rat head that sat at the top of the clock, as well as the assorted gears and decorations that sat on the frame's edges. 

The clock, harpsichord, and tea-table were put up on risers that had black-and-white stripes covering them in some venues, with assorted gears and decorations placed about the stage. The red-and-white covering of the keyboard was replaced with black-and-white. New decorations came to the harpsicord area, such as skulls and dolls and signs. The occassional fan-gift would appear on stage with the other decorations as the tour progressed.

The tea-table appeared for the first time on stage, which had the pastries and tea that Autumn and the Crumpets would drink and, at times, throw at the crowd.

The Key Tour[]

The Key tour featured the second-largest clock, which was a thick, circular frame with hand-made numbers attached to the silver frame. A few of the decorations that could be found before had left, but new ones came about. A thicker black-and-white striped fabric covered only the harpsichord and the tea table was painted pink, with a jeweled fringe about the bottom edge. The risers remained for most venues.

The European and Austrailian dates in 2011 featured a new clock, which did not have the thick decorative frame. The frame was instead bare, left with the metal bars that created it, and decorated with the rat head and hand-made numbers from the previous tours to make the clock. The gear decorations were also on the frame. Assorted decorations were about the stage and the harpsicord and tea table remained the same.

The Door Tours[]

The first bare-stage performances since the Enchant and early Opheliac eras appeared in South America, where Autumn could not ship her full stage to the venues. This stage featured a white screen on a circular stand without a designed frame. The keyboard was either uncovered or covered with black and red fabrics, as well as the "Hot, Nuts, Suicidal" sign.

Once back to the US, Autumn realized that the content of her show mattered more than her stage design, which resulted in a "bare" set compared to previous tours. The clock developed into a circular frame with a large, printed border on fabric; the days of multi-layed designs hanging on and around the frame had passed. Her harspicord covering changed into a vertical black-and-white fabric with "The Asylum" logo printed on it, with a red cloth draping over the top corners. A few decorations remained on the riser with the harspicord. The tea table remained.

At this time, Autumn graduated to wireless microphones for all performers.

Fight Like A Girl Tour[]

The clock, harpsichord decorations, and tea table from the previous tours remained (though the tea table moved on and off stage in some venues). Autumn added her "asylum bars" this tour, which were stackable rows of silver bars placed about stage. Two were stacked behind the keyboard, one was placed infront of the clock's riser, and two were stacked behind the stage right riser with one in front of it. Assorted decorations were hung from the bars, which included the "Hot, Nuts, Suicidal" signs.

Fight Like A Girl 2013 Tours[]

The stage design was completely redesigned for these tours to be more closely based on Autumn's vision for "The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls." 

The tea table (now mobile and move on and off stage for the song "The Key") and the Asylum bars from the previous tour remained, but the Asylum Clock was replaced with a two-story set piece for center stage. It is meant to represent the front of The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls in a condensed, easy-to-travel-and-fit-on-stage fashion. The harpsichord coverings were replaced with black and brown fabrics.

The first level of the set piece now features the iconic "Asylum Gates," which the girls move in and out of during the show. It is assumed that Autumn had these custom made. The second level of the tower is used mostly for visual effect, though the girls sometimes climb up there for various reasons. A set of lights are placed on the floor to cast various colors on the girls for dramatic effect, such as during "Time for Tea." A clock is hung from the top of the tower.

During shows where the new set piece could not fit on stage easily, the Clock from the previous tour was used. The set resembled the layout from the previous tour.

Set Photos[]

References[]

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