SEVEN TALES OF MISERY

Crying eye


"Powerful installation theatre experience religious sect.
Now it’s more of a sense of being brainwashed that creeps up on us – that’s how thoroughly well executed and convincing the performance in Signa Sørensen and Arthur Köstler’s total installation is. The old building provides a fantastic feeling of by-gone days with its faded wallpaper, worn-down staircases, grotty attic rooms and damp-stained basements. And the many performers, from princesses and beggars to the disciples themselves, fulfil their roles with an impressive combination of authentic reality and theatrical mystique.
As installation theatre goes (a field in which the duo Signa Sørensen and Arthur Köstler are well versed, with a number of success performances under their belts) it doesn’t get much better than this. There’s a feeling of landing in a frozen pocket in time and on an unknown continent at the same time. There is also a definitely threatening element as the universe being depicted by the production symbolises the mixture of tyranny and total devotion that unfortunately is all too prevalent in the real-life religious sects of today. Luckily here, unlike in these real-life sects, you are able to walk out the door once you’ve seen enough."

- Henrik Lyding, Jyllands Posten






Time: 9th – 30th of September 2006
Place: The former Pentecostal church in Kronprinsensgade 7 in Copenhagen, Denmark
Duration: 5 hours a day
Number of performers: 65
Resumé: A large old building in central Copenhagen, once home to both a Freemason's lodge and a Pentecostal mission, was transformed into a fairy tale-like yet scarily cultish representation of a world full of religious, secular and political rituals. The audience was taken through 43 rooms in small groups before they were let loose to explore the fictitious universe individually. They would meet the Prince in the throne room and visit the seven continents, symbolized by seven young women, all the time accompanied by a backdrop of reel-to-reel tape recorders constantly collecting a multitude of misery and sending it on to the Prince, who then erased it in order to free the world from misery.

Concept: Signa Sørensen, Arthur Köstler, Martin Stig Andersen (link)
Audio design and compositions: Martin Stig Andersen and Eyvind Gulbrandsen (Ass.)
Set design: Signa Sørensen, Thomas Bo Nilsson
Sound installation engineers: Flopper, Mads Bech Paluszewski, Ebbe Valbak, Sebastian Randall and Simon Lausten Østergaard
Lighting: Eva Ulvan Handberg, Kristoffer Ernst-Lyngbye (Ass.)
Telephone system: Flopper
Production: Angelica Berdini and Sarah Otte (Ass.)
Costumes: Thomas Bo Nilsson
Direction: Signa Sørensen
Web design: Arthur Köstler and Djawed Kimouche
Photo: Erich Goldmann
Performers: Agustín Weissbein, Amitai Romm, Arthur Köstler, Birgitte Klæbel, Camilla Bonde, Camilla Jørgensen, Djawed Kimouche, Ebbe Valbak, Eli Ingvarsson, Elin von Wright, Emil Groth Larsen, Eva Ulvan Handberg, Flopper, Frank Baetge, Frauke Materlik, Gry Worre Hallberg, Heidi Kit Møller, Hernán Espinosa, Inga Gerner Nielsen, Irina Zabrodina Jørgensen, Iwona Rejmus, Johanna Wikgren, Julie Arndal Engstrand, Katarina Cederin, Kenneth Harrison, Kim Skjoldager-Nielsen, Kristian Pallesen, Kristoffer Ernst-Lyngbye, Louisa Aisin, Louise Bagger, Luba Mukibi, Madeleine Kate McGowan Nielsen, Mads Bech Paluszewski, Mads Fahnøe, Maria Rugbjerg, Marianne Hendriksen, Mattias Almlund, Momo Subotic, Nana Francisca Schottländer, Ojuna Njama Petersen, Oldoz Javidi, Paco Fernández, Parvin Yazdani, Peter Tommila, Pia Bertoldi, Piet Gitz-Johansen, Sarah Otte, Sasha Bothilde Handberg, Saskia Ruesenberg, Signa Sørensen, Signe Erichsen, Sille Arendt, Sofia Johansson, Sol Montaldo, Sonja Salkowitsch, Stefanie de Souza, Stig Eivind Vatne, Tina Kraft, Thomas Bo Nilsson, Tomomi Yamauchi, Tristan Alexander Kold Christensen, Valentina Etchart, Vanja Sandell, Zena Al Kamesy and Zille Gellert
Produced by: PLEX - Københavns Musikteater (link)
Supported by: Kunstrådets Musikdramatiske Udvalg, Nordisk Kulturfond, Dansk Komponistforening, Tuborgfonden

Homepage: www.seventalesofmisery.com



prev.gifnext.gif
overview