Three performers trying to escape their daily routine end up in the world of Schlager music: Are feelings actually classified like in Andrea Berg’s ‘Gefühle haben Schweigepflicht’? Don’t we dream after the age of 17 as Peggy March suggested? And is Jürgen Marcus correct in claiming that a new love is like a new life? MATHIEU looks behind the scenes, not just of Paris (cf. Mireille Mathieu), but of the guilty pleasure as such. And how does the performance do that? By creating an entirely new genre of show: Dark Schlager. Crooning meets dance theatre!
Guilty pleasures are songs, films, and TV shows that are generally not considered particularly high-value, especially by the arts pages. The performance MATHIEU grabs the swimming trunks (cf. Cornelia Froboess) and dives into the reputedly shallow waters of musical entertainment. The audience is welcomed with an emotional roller coaster of stereotypes and biases between cosily pleasant drifts, glitzy colours, serious contaminants, and gaping rifts in the deeper areas of the cold-water pool that is classism. As Joy Fleming has wisely remarked, ‘Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein’, a song may well be a bridge.
Scenery, Choreography, Text Sebastiano Sing Dance Hugo Le Brigand Live sound, Performance ERNST LIMA Performance Sebastiano Sing Sound design ERNST LIMA Lighting design Joe Albrecht Costumes byroses.com Stage Sebastiano Sing Outside Eye Sara Lanner Video Trailer Francesca Centonze Production management Hugo Le Brigand
A co-production of Sebastiano Sing and brut Wien. With the kind support of the City of Vienna’s Department of Cultural Affairs and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Art, Culture, Civil Service and Sport. Special thanks to TURBO Residency ImPulsTanz, Bears in the Park and Arbeitsplatz Wien for their support.
© Christiane Peschek
