Length 35 min
Choreography, lights, set, costumes Martin Harriague
Music The shoes, The knife, Octavio Mesa, Nils Frahm, Alva Noto, Barry White, Vessel
Assistant Nadav Gal
Performers Leipzig Opera Ballet
Premiere Schauspielhaus Leipzig - 22.03.2019
Co-production Leipzig Opera Ballet & Schauspielhaus Leipzig
Presentation
‘It is a performance such as America had never witnessed: a talented showman, obsessed by fame and in perennial pursuit of a final twist, panders to the dreams and fears of the public to keep us watching with bated breath. Nurturing all forms of violence and seduction, this egomaniacal millionaire poses as an anti system rebel, reassures people by preaching violence and urges a conquering country to isolate themselves behind a wall. His rough and ready messages are at odds with the complexity of the world, the musicality of his language sugarcoats the rudeness of his words, his speech celebrates love and brutality alike and praises a sense of pride while shrouding us in darkness. It would be entertaining if that man were not, incidentally, the president of the United States.’
Martin Harriague.
Choreographed to a soundtrack made up of snatches of presidential speeches, America exposes the absurdity and cruelty of the latter through a scathingly humorous mise en scène that verges on the impressionistic. Thanks to staccato, repetitive or dramatic moves, the dancers first turn into puppets sporting Trump masks and yellow wigs before they morph into a clandestine mob staging an onslaught against a border wall. The spine-chilling ending shall reveal the truly murderous reality of the president’s rhetoric hidden behind the American dream.