The Residents’ God in Three Persons


The Residents’ “God in Three Persons”

January 2020 | Museum of Modern Art | New York City

Written and Performed by The Residents

in collaboration with media artist John Sanborn

The Residents have been creating, recording and performing for over 40 years –and doing it all anonymously – changing the perception of contemporary American music and our understanding of what it means to make art.

In collaboration with media artist John Sanborn, The Residents are creating a singular, live version of their legendary 1988 album “God in Three Persons” – the story of a traveling evangelist and his twisted obsession with a pair of conjoined twins he claims to be miracle workers. The album is among the most critically acclaimed in The Residents’ catalogue and has never been performed live – except for a workshop at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco last year.

“God in Three Persons” is a raucous musical composition, fashioned as a propulsive hard rock oratorio with a deep Southern twang. It is sung in a rhythmic spoken word style, similar to the talking blues, and driven by a bombastic and dynamic score derived, in large part, from the first few bars of the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy.” The character of Mr. X narrates and is accompanied throughout by a chorus of voices, singing in high, nasal, “outsider­ country” harmonies.

This staged version composites a single live performer (one of The Residents as the evangelist, Mr. X) inside an innovative system of video projection (created by Sanborn) to tell this twisted tale of moral corruption. The media projections depict the thoughts and desires of Mr. X and force the audience inside his collapsing mental state as he tells the story of his illicit love.

Framed by folksy memories, our highly unreliable narrator pretends that his lurid obsession was simply a regard for the health and safety of these healing twins, until his libido bursts like a flood swollen dam, causing a dire release and realignment of the twins connection.

Stalking the stage, desperate for a memory that is not shocking or violent, the inner life of Mr. X is projected in an overlapping series of layers – via three video channels projected on a main backdrop screen and two movable scrims, by three video projectors. Beginning in a twisted version of “reality” the work progresses into darker and more abstract territory over the course of eight scenes, with recurring symbols and messages taking a distorted hold on the story, until the obsession of Mr. X reaches its climax.

For this production, noted visual artist Leigh Barbier is producing miniature sets, puppets, and props featuring her eclectic collage style that will be transformed in the media mix. The music has been newly orchestrated by The Residents and will be pre-recorded to be support the live vocals.