What would you do if you could be reborn in any body at any place? What would you do if you could choose your gender? Your lifespan? From one minute to eternity? If you could choose your surroundings? Sea? Desert? Palm-trees? If you could pick the people around you? If you could build a community from scratch? What would you do with the given hardships in your society?
If you could move around four different stages of human existence – would you? If you could join us in a crossover between science, installation, performance lecture – would you? If you could save someone – would you? Whom? Yourself? Or somebody else?
IF is a cross-over genre: a participative performance using 4 interactive installations, which invite the audience into different levels of action and interaction, by choosing life-circumstances: gender, lifespan, friends, relations, society and future. A performer leads the whole game of existence, orientating the audience among the rules of the games, reacts and responds to their actions, and, at well-defined moments, acts out roles related to the 4 stages-installations-games. Participants can choose at each stage the level of their activity from watching to acting.
Duration: 90 mins.
Language: English.
TEAM:
Rita Sebestyen (RO/HU/DK): writer and director
Minni Katina Mertens (NO/DK): performer
Sara Vilardo (IT/BE/DK): performer
Ivan Wahren (SE): light and sound designer
Mira Nadina Mertens (NO/DK): dramaturge
Stine Ebbesen (DK): videos and documentation
Trine Heller (DK): graphic design
music courtesy of Ya Tosiba
Premiere: Bådteatret (16-21 October 2017), and: Actor Training in a Globalized World (24 October 2017).
The performance is approved by the Danish Arts Fund (Statens Kunst Fond) for the communication and ticket sale scheme (billetkøbsordningen).
“As an audience member you are free to participate to the degree you wish; as such you can observe the action or take part in it by playing. It is a quirky analogy to the real world – I would, however, recommend that you, as far as possible, allow yourself to participate actively to make the most of the experience. (…) The performance is thought-provoking, exceptionally thought-provoking even. (…) I would readily recommend this little philosophical piece as it offers a great opportunity to reflect. I was entertained!” Original review in Danish by Sofie Herdorf Krøyer, scenekanten.com, 20 October, 2017.
Research and performance details + technical rider. By Stine Ebbesen.
