UNBOUND: A Bondage Opera Blending Classical and Kink

When you hear the words “bondage” and “opera” in the same sentence, you might automatically assume that someone is talking about two completely different things. Nathan Hall is prepared to prove you wrong.

UNBOUND is a new opera that’s turning the traditional, button upped genre on its head. Hall, the show’s composer and director, is trained in classical music, but now he’s breaking barriers, blending the classic with the kinky. Set in a gay fetish club, the show follows Guy on his search for sexual fantasy—the one he thinks he wants, and the one that may change him. The stage will be set at Studio Friction, a local Denver ropes studio, offering voyeuristic viewers an immersive glimpse into the world of bondage and kink.

The opera is a beautiful homage to the fetish community and art form, while also providing an educational space for curious audiences unfamiliar with the nuances of the practice.

So, has UNBOUND caught your attention yet? If it hasn’t (which seems impossible, I know), then this interview about it definitely will. I had the pleasure of speaking with Hall, the show’s brilliant creator, all about UNBOUND, the queer/kink world, and everything in between! Enjoy!

How did UNBOUND begin?
Well, it’s funny … I had a trip to Sweden in 2017, and I had an experience at this adult bookstore that was so different than I had ever expected because it was very quiet and almost meditative, not like the usual, music-blasting eroticism of adult bookstores. And then on my flight home, I actually sketched out an idea on an airplane napkin for a theatrical piece that was about coming into one’s acceptance of themselves, rather than needing someone else to validate them sexually. And it was going to be very experimental … so that morphed then into a full-length opera. I didn’t have any paper at the time because I wasn’t expecting to have an idea pop in my head, so I had to ask the flight attendant for some napkins.

I feel like that’s the story of how all great works of art begin: sketching on a napkin or a discarded piece of paper…
Haha yes exactly! It feels almost cliché but … that’s just how it happened!

Did you have a personal connection with bondage before the show, or was it a new exploration for you?
For maybe 10 years or so, I’ve always had an interest in kink and fetish, and as as a gay man myself, I feel like I have slightly non-mainstream interests so fetish has always kind of piqued my curiosity. I love the expression of it; I love the control aspects, of being able to have this fantasy, that you’re able to work out this process with rope, that you negotiate with somebody else to have this very erotic experience together.

Whether I’m the one doing the tying or the one being tied up, I really have enjoyed it for years. Then, I ended up taking classes from Studio Friction, because I had an art piece I wanted to do that involved bondage. So, that really was, like, the springboard into, ‘Oh, I could really do this!’ and I really enjoy this. I enjoy the rules of Shibari bondage, and I like the beauty and the art of it.

You mentioned Studio Friction, the location where your show is going to be—it’s such a unique location to pick for any show, particularly an opera. How did you land on that and envision the show there?
I had thought about other venues, but once the opera involved the bondage scene, I thought I just have to ask the big bondage studio in Denver—I would just be remiss if I didn’t, you know? It could happen in a black box theater, and that would be fine but I thought, ‘Why not set it in a place where the whole rope community would just love it? If they were OK with having a theater show in there, and we could rent the venue and have our audiences—my classical world and their rope world—intermix and come together. And they, of course, were just nuts about the idea! And it ended up being part of their mission to elevate rope work into an art form, so it fit really nicely. I’m so glad they were open to the idea.

Was this your first time doing a piece that has this layered, multimedia, immersive experience?
Not really, but it’s the first one I’ve ever had that’s involved a live, full-length performance with live performers. I’ve done a few immersive installation type pieces, where you walk into a space and the whole atmosphere is changed … you close the door behind you and the lights change, and there’s sound and there’s an installation of some kind. But I’ve never really done it with singers before, so this really put my toes into the theater world

Have you been wanting to get into the theater world for a while or did it just happen to play out like this?
I guess it’s always been there in the background because I’ve had on my list of things that I’d love to write, like, a really bizarre musical one day, and I’d really love to work in film one day and just haven’t yet, so I think it was always, bound to happen if you will, pun intended, but just maybe didn’t expect it to happen for this work… except it feels right.

What was it like combining your classical music background with such edgy, new content?
Well, in my mind, it melds really nicely, but I think I am an outsider in that tradition. I think the hardest thing for the show is actually calling it an opera. That can make people think, ‘I really don’t know if I like opera,’ but I don’t really like opera all that much to be honest. And I think this was a way of me to saying, ‘OK, I’m a classical musician. For a living, I write notes on pages, and I come up with things for people to sing and play, like, why don’t I feel like I really can get into this genre that’s been around for hundreds of years?’ So this was a way for me to find out what I could inject of myself in the opera that comes from my classical training but also brings in the other worlds that I love and find where they meet in the middle.

What the casting process like? Has most of your cast worked with kink before or was this new territory for them?
It’s been really interesting to see them grow with it. Some of them are very familiar, and then some of them are complete newbies to the concept of kink or practice of it. One of our singers does adult content, and then one of our singers has literally never thought about bondage before. I think most of them are comfortable in their sexuality, and from there, they basically embody a character and learn like method actors. They, like, learn the role and become that, even if it’s not part of their own, personal world.

The most important thing for me was that all of with the singers and staff felt like they were in a safe space. Especially as queer people, we can often be in uncertain places when we’re putting ourselves out there. So, I actually had an intimacy coach come in and talk about how we can be vulnerable together but also have good consent practices. And we learn how we can explore our bodies on stage without feeling like we’re having shame or insecurities tied up in that. And when do we have to actually say, ‘No, this is a line I don’t want to cross professionally’ and how to work choreography around that.

Have you gotten any reactions from the kink community yet about the show?
Oh, like, 100 percent positive. I have not even advertised tickets, other than sharing on our fundraiser that tickets are on sale, and some of the performances are already half sold out. I think, especially in the rope community, people are really thirsty—they want to see their passions represented in an art work in an authentic way, not just a 50 Shades of Grey, whips-and-chains, novelty way. Also, as queer people, you want to see yourself on the stage, or represented in characters that you feel like ‘Oh, these are real people who are like me,’ and I think the kink community has been really eager for that in media and in theater and art work.

You wrote in a press release that UNBOUND will ‘entertain and educate’—what would you like your audiences to walk away having learned from the show?
I want to educate people about sex positivity. So often, our sex practices become very relegated to the shadows. I want people to feel more open about discussing their interests and their turn ons and things like that in a beautiful, consensual way. I think that there’s a certain kind of education in showing a fetish club or showing how people might interact in a theatrical way that people are like, ‘Oh, this happens; this is real people.’

This is what especially gay men experience a lot. And then, when it comes to the rope, it’s a very authentic bondage practice. It’s not just, like, some stage lighting or a little magician trick to make it look ‘bondage-y’—it’s real bondage. I want people to feel like that’s something they could explore for themselves too, and they can be safe, and consensual, and there are classes about it, and it can be fun, too! It doesn’t always have to be this dark, edgy fantasy—it can be it can be full of humor and joy, and something to share with someone else that you love.

Seriously, is there any better line to close on than that?! Performances of UNBOUND will take place on August 27, August 31, Sept. 2, and Sept. 4 at 8 p.m., and August 29 at 3 p.m. at Studio Friction, 740 Lipan Street, Denver. Tickets are $30 for general admission or $60 for an additional hour-long rope tutorial and prime seating for audiences eager to try the bondage experience for themselves. The last day to purchase tickets is Aug. 25,  so run to get them now by clicking here!

Additionally, the fundraiser for UNBOUND will be closing on Aug. 10. All proceeds go toward the show and its phenomenal cast, so if you want to show your support, click here to donate!