Chiaroscuro, the violent contrast of light and dark. The artist Caravaggio created work bathed in shadows, and in the folds of this darkness, the joys and sorrow of earthly life and love were to be found.

Enter the intimate artist’s studio where Caravaggio is painting Gregorio, a sex worker posing as the subject of a religious work.

We share in the creation of this art, the male form an object to be admired and considered. There is a hunger here… for love, for food, for sex.

Last night you were trying to kill me.

Caravaggio is remembered as the father of modern portraiture. He was a complicated man: violent, provocative. Chiaroscuro reclaims Caravaggio’s place in queer history, unravelling tradition and history in an erotic psychodrama about art and religion.

David Atfield is one of Canberra’s most respected directors and playwrights, a winner of three Canberra Critics’ Circle Awards and founder of BITS Theatre Company.