"Loneliness fosters that which is original, daringly and bewilderingly beautiful, poetic. But loneliness also fosters that which is perverse, incongruous, absurd, forbidden." From Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
The world as we know it is on the tipping point. A sense of doom creeps up on us. How do we act when the abyss is gaping right in front of our feet? When the torrential rain pours down on us, when people are chased on the run, and when the truth is twisted into the absurd? Does it make us act? Gustav von Aschenbach in Thomas Mann's short story Death in Venice does as many of us do: He runs home and books a holiday someplace sunny.
In the amalgamation between a distanced textual presentation, a brutal choreographic material, and a seductive musical expression, the foresight wishes to examine a person who refuses to acknowledge that death has taken over the menagerie, and who rather escapes into self-deception and desire.
Ymist works in a scenic language area that insists that the choreographed movement is as important as the spoken text. Where the multi-vocal nature of the actor's body, voice and physique is the artistic focal point in the encounter with literature. The elements should not illustrate but challenge, and stand in opposition to each other. The textual introductions are non-dramatic texts with clear literary qualities. The focus of the work is to give body to the literature – and to embody the materiality of the text.
Tod in Venedig by Thomas Mann
Performing Rights S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany ©
In collaboration with Nationaltheatret (the National Theatre in Oslo) .