A car is racing towards an abyss for ninety minutes. Climate collapse? The end of humanity? Or is it going to a hospital, for a child to be born? Visual artist Agnieszka Polska, awarded the renowned Preis der Nationalgalerie in Berlin, brings her first production to the stage. It is as unusual as it is magnetizing – a hypnotic science fiction road trip. While landscapes rush by and atmospheric music sounds, the disastrous relationship of human and machine, of ecological and humanitarian catastrophe is radically enacted on stage. The actors in the car are constantly switching their roles: one minute they are mother-father-child, the next they are occasional car sharers. The breakneck drive is taking them from a dark past into an uncertain future. The only question is: what is worse – that which is behind us or that which is yet to come?
Text, direction Agniezska Polska With Albano Jerónimo, Iris Cayatte, Vera Mantero, Bartosz Bielenia, Nina Guo Voice over Jasmina Polak Dramaturgy collaboration Olga Drygas Music Igor Klaczyski Light design Rui Monteiro Light operator Teresa Antunes Video design, Sound design André Teixeira Digital puppet animator Jeremy Coubrough Stage videos animation Ewa Polska Head of production Hugo Alves Caroça (BoCA) Technical assistance Alexander Istrate
Commission and production BoCA – Biennial of Contemporary Arts (Lisbon) Coproduction DE SINGEL (Antwerp), Nowy Teatr (Warsaw)
Premiere September 2023, BoCA – Biennial of Contemporary Arts (Lissabon)