That humanity is sailing towards its own destruction because we are happily bowls in engångsplastglas is a grim fact. When the artist duo of Carina Reich and Bogdan Szyber are given free rein in the Studio at the Gothenburg city theatre, embodied the whole of our contemporary folly and the forthcoming klimatkollaps with the help of gallows humor, thousands of years of undergångsmytologiskt luggage and four actors in a sound studio. The result is a deeply allegorically, brutally concrete and brilliant scenkonstupplevelse.
a ljudläggningsrepetition of the ”Ship of fools”, 1400-talsmyten if the fool’s ship, which operates without a course towards its own destruction on the high seas. The scene is a mired radioteaterstudio, complete with chains, ropes, cranks, tubs and pipleksaker. Byggplast shaken frantically, crackers crushed, the crunching vise induces both båtljud as måsars nasal screech. The best, rockbeklädda ljudläggarna illustrates the journey towards doom, accompanied by a recorded narration.
Hannah Alem Davidson plays the group’s wide-eyed, clumsy hackkyckling who are struggling with their timing. Victoria Olmakers self-proclaimed leaders is sour, sullen and determined. When she ecstatically headbangande incurs a lumbago at the wind machine, set up anas a and other neurosis in the stenansiktet. Jesper Söderblom makes a perfect portrait of a self-righteous hippie-shaman who takes on his task with deep concentration and a rocker fjäderörhänge. Watches, ärttrummor and the rope is treated with a frenzy and love. Johan Karlberg is playing the retired employee Kjell, now pizzabud, which penetrates on to help in the work, but tipping over the bottom of the inventory with their degrading large cykelbudsryggsäck. When he’s not singing old ballads with undergångstema, wearing a yellow babymössa with the rays of the sun in the fabric.
the eclectic and all-encompassing, lightning-fast moves from Plato to Ragnarrök and the individual’s konsumentångest in mejeridisken. It can accommodate both Hans Rosling-optimism and antropocen-pessimism, while cooperation at the stage collapses and the irritation increases. A perfect illustration of our time where everyone seems more preoccupied with the portrayal of the downfall, and a love for their individual tasks, in to stop the catastrophe. So the whole show is a hilarious Titanic-pun of our time. And we are allowed to laugh as we cry.
Undergångsspelet marks the last premiere at the state theatre. To ”Ship of fools” only played more than a month is unimaginable. The end is near. Ship o hoy. Hurry to see.