A Cabaret from Spain

Work means wasting your life…

…and nowadays far too much time is spent at work. This is the point of departure for the spectacle 7 Dust Show, an ironic contemplation on the logics of working life by the Spanish theatre ensemble Conservas.

”For ages we have been told that work is good for us. Along the way we have been ground to pieces and what is left is definitely far from happiness,” says Simona Levi, the director of the performance. These themes encouraged her to explore the contradictions in the 21st century working life in a form of a spectacle.

The stage is filled with videos, music, choreographies, interaction, and, to quote the director, ”fools and simpletons”. These are the ingredients for a cabaret with the work theme as its focus. In the cabaret, work is counterbalanced by the culture of idleness.

A COLOURFUL FLOOD OF IMAGES

The first part of the performance explores the ’great modern cabaret’, television. Simona Levi employs interaction with irony and lets the audience fidget with different kinds of remote controls, which ’just refuse to stop working’.

The projection screen shows how human ants begin to swarm over the film screen; how naked women crawl on all fours. Meanwhile, a man is being nailed to his desk - literally. Thanks to the mechanical machines, female workers manage to serve soup without interrupting their work. The ants get to symbolise the bewildering amount of work. ”The ants are funny. The only thing they do is stupid work,” says Simona Levi, director.

With its performers, singers and striptease, the atmosphere resembles that of any contemporary cabaret. The philosophical topic is discussed by means of a light-hearted multimedia cabaret. The experiment gives the audience an opportunity for channel hopping and even contains a questionnaire surveying the significance of marketing and sociology in working life. The viewer is faced with questions, What do you think about the general strike? How far would you go in order to earn a promotion? With whom would you like to work?

CONSCIENCE IS PUT TO A TEST

The performance illustrates the grim side of working life. Submission, acceptance of the inappropriate, competition between those lower in rank, a temptation to turn one’s back on the problems, the inconceivability of the genuine freedom of choice, and ultimately, the invasion of work in an individual’s private life are some of the perspectives that are used to tweak the spectator’s conscience.

Conservas denies having a moral agenda. ”We only want to tease people’s consciousness. If we succeed we are happy,” Simona Levi says.

Conservas: 7 Dust Show
24-25 Sep at 7pm Kiasma Theatre