Requiem for the Stressed Souls
Requiem for the Stressed Souls
★★★★★ “Fascinating notion as we were inside the heads of these people in a world full of empty-smart concepts like win-win situation, efficiency and teams” – Henrik Lyding, Jyllandsposten
Stress has become an epidemic. Employees secretly meet at work on Sundays, go to the life coach, psychologist and personal trainerto follow the demands of the time. Lots of people go down with stress. What is happening?
We all know the fancy buzzwords: strategy, structure change, mission, vision,, team, flexibility and mobility. Words that are put into the world to give each employee co-responsibility and opportunity for development. But what happens when the borders for responsibility and privacy are wiped out, and the changes in our workplaces come to no end?
OVERLOAD is based on interviews with stress-affected employees in public and private professions. Their reports paint a portrait of the labour market today, with more and more crashes with major human and socio-economic consequences.
Director Liv Helm and composer Matilde Böcher have created a choral work of voices in speakers, which play along with the actors' bodies. A montage of sounds, choruses, voices and bodies that takes the audience on an imaginative journey through the causes of stress and criticism of today's labour market.
Contributors: Sofia Saaby Mehlum, Mikkel Bay Mortensen and Peder Holm Johansen
Screenplay and staging: Liv Helm
Composer: Matilde Böcher
Sound design: Ida Jacobsen and Anders Amdisen
Lighting design: Kim Littau
Performance manager: Signe Lausen
OVERLOAD was performed at Odense Teater in November 2014. In June 2015, the performance was nominated for the Special Jury Prize at the Reumert of the Year.
OVERLOAD is now being built in Copenhagen with the support of the Statens Kunstfonds project support committee for performing arts.