Is it really ever really really reall real? Really.
Theatre - Live Digital
Co-directed by Tom Sergeant
Performed by Raphael Von Blumenthal, Leila Vega Fass, Henriette Laursen, Leo Graham and Meg Lake.
Co-directed by Tom Sergeant
Performed by Raphael Von Blumenthal, Leila Vega Fass, Henriette Laursen, Leo Graham and Meg Lake.
This play investigates the division between real, reality and representation in everyday life. It is concerned with the prevailing understanding of what it means to be a successful human being in our culture and the negative consequences the ways we measure this success has on people’s mental health. This understanding of success is intrinsically intertwined with the idea of being independent and becoming ‘your real, authentic self’.
With this work I hope to make an audience reconsider what we all do on a day to day basis to become successful and whether what we want in life is actually produced by ourselves or dominating structures in society which benefits from our quest to reach these. Are our wants in life ‘real’ or are they representations of the dominating structures of the society in which we live? And how does this affect people’s mental wellbeing?
The play further asks if there even is a division between real and representation and, if yes, where is that division drawn? To explore this, the play involves the actors switching between scripted material, improvisation and their own personal stories. Though, is an anticipated improvisation any more real than the scripted? Is a rehearsed, personal story not a representation? What is personal (in the sense of coming from within a person) and what are just internalised beliefs coming from somewhere else?
Set in a heightened version of today’s world, 3 people in their 20’s/30’s and 1 mother in her 50’s explore what it means to be real when reality itself is a representation. Some interrogate the role of language while others question the reality of their own bodies or thoughts. Always watching and dictating is the 10 year old Child who is forcing everyone to keep busy, reach their full potential and strive to be real people. Otherwise they will be fined.
March 19, 2021, Review in Weekendavisen of the digital live performance at Theatre Faar302, Copenhagen, Denmark
"Zoom theatre sounds dystopian, but in Linnea Langfjord's production the dystopia is exquisite. Teater Får302 presents the play "Is it really ever really really really real? Really?" which is less redundant and more innovative than its title. Five actors in their own Zoom-rectangles whip up a world which looks like a version of our own, if all Svend Brinkmann's nightmares had come true. It is all about being successful, reaching your full potential, personal achievements and to be a real and authentic human being in a dark, quantifiable way. To become real in the middle of an unreal, tensely smiling society. Raphael has purposely lost his memory and ability to think coherently and instead folds cabbages from paper. Henriette meets the world with an angry, queen-like demeanour and tries to avoid the fines which a friendly, Big Brother like society issues to Citizens who are not busy enough improving themselves. This is not a simple critique of capitalism, but a complex charisma critique - and the play is propelled by real pain, finely polished characters and lines, flexibly weaving themselves through clever, quick sprints. There is a young, contemporary Tony Kushner to Linnea Langfjord, who effortlessly mixes intellectualism, tragi-comic social analysis, intimate social life and disturbing realisme in a bright, well laid out doomsday story".