LAUGHTER IN THE DARK
The Mind Deceives
2014
Performers
Albinus Thomas Mørk / Klaus Tange
Rex Johannes Lilleøre
Margot Clara Fasting Prebensen
Live music Nils Frahm / August Rosenbaum
Direction, concept Kirsten Dehlholm
Manuscript Mogens Rukov, Kirsten Dehlholm
Choreography Mette IngvartsenMusic: Nils Frahm
Light design Jesper Kongshaug
Sound design Kristian Hverring
Set design Kirsten Dehlholm, Adalsteinn Stefansson
Costume design Henrik Vibskov
Production Hotel Pro Forma, Republique
Co-production Hotel Pro Forma, Republique, Sirenos Festival, TEART
Distribution Quaternaire
The performance is supported by Bikubenfonden, Oticonfonden, Toyotafonden, Beckettfonden and the Goethe Institute.
Partners
MAC Cosmetic
A momentous sensory experience
* * * * Magsinet KBH
The set design works like a well-oiled machine…an incredible musical universe that creeps through the floor and up through your feet…it is exeptionally beautiful.
* * * * Kulturkongen
Politiken
Hotel Pro Forma creates life in the audience’s alerted senses…The space that takes shape inside you via the sounds is fascinating, where everything seems to take place behind your back, just as in Margot’s deception of Albinus with her lover.
Weekendavisen
Every single breath and every single crispy sound effect is so crystal clear that it fascinates and cnofuses the ear in the most wonderful way. I have never before experienced such a spatial, almost physically tangible sound.
Information
A hyper-aesthetic staging…a three-part sensory metamorphosis…
In Kristian Hverring’s sound design the desire of the flesh is only a heavy, trembling breath transmitted directly to the brain through the foam of the headphones. Sitting there in the dark, one almost feels that one’s own sight-nerves are torn apart by the sound of a violent car-crash with glass splinters and crushed metal flying in all directions. The retina is sweating profusely.
Laughter in the Dark is an exciting exploration of what the different medias can do. The piece glows with a fearfully high level of abstraction, where art forms are tossed into the air without the slightest care as to which way they are caught by the audience…A surprising and challenging game for the senses with the power of a human
performance.
A truly fantastic premiere, an incredibly strong image universe. The music manages to open up to all of [Kirsten’s] universe. A universe so pure and somehow filled in an anti-dramatic way…A fantastic experience that grows on you. And as always, very well-produced.
– Hans Christian Gimbel, director, Theatre Republique
Using Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Laughter in the Dark as it’s starting point, the performance is a classic tale of desire, lust, misfortune and deception. The man Albinus leaves his wife and child for a young lover, Margot. The man’s new friend, Rex, is her ex-boyfriend. A love triangle has begun. Albinus loses his sight in a car crash and is subjected to betrayal and deception until the fatal shot is heard.
The choice of a simple well-written tale with a classic plot lets us develop the visual and audio means and turn them into active co-players.
The performance is divided into three acts.
1. Dark. We begin far into the story. Albinus is blinded. Voices and sounds move all the way into the audience’s bodies via binaural microphones and headphones. Into our inner space.
2. Light and shadow. The space is seen as an inevitable machine in constant movement. It pushes the characters in certain directions where they can disappear and appear again in new situations. The story is told here from start to finish. The choreography makes use of the space’s elements and balances between the machine’s movements, the characters’ personalities and the tale’s sequence of events. The costumes and shoes are at the same time recognizable and necessarily alienating. The characters become a part of the space.
3. Music. The tale is over, but the music continues. It shakes off the story and takes us into a pounding rhythmic chamber of tones, hammer strokes, volume, chords and melodic beauty. The music ruptures the fated tale and opens up to new spaces.
All speaks to the mind and the senses.
Duration 90 min. no intermission
Sindet bedrager
2014
Engang boede der i Berlin en mand, der hed Albinus. Han var rig, respektabel og lykkelig. En dag forlod han sin kone for en ung elskerindes skyld. Han elskede, blev ikke elsket selv, og hans liv endte i en katastrofe.
Således begynder Vladimir Nabokovs roman Laughter in the Dark: en grusom, men brillant historie om Albinus. En mand, der lader sig forføre af sit begær og bedrager sin kone for en yngre elskerinde. I fortællingen mister Albinus sit syn, og han bliver derefter ført bag lyset af sin elskerinde og sin bedste ven. Historien handler om menneskets natur; om had, begær, ondskab og afmagt. En natur, der kan stå i skærende kontrast til de idealbilleder, vi opstiller for vores liv.
Den klassiske historie bliver fortalt i gennem en række visuelle og auditive virkemidler. Publikum oplever, hvordan deres egne sanser påvirkes og udfordres i samspil og modspil med hovedpersonernes.
Musikalske skitser
Nils Frahm, som skriver musikken og spiller live under forestillingen, har skrevet nedenstående skitser af musikken.