I’m one of 51 people hanging out in a bar. We’re waiting for the show to begin.
What we don’t know is that we soon will be left in a dusty dark corridor with masks on our faces and flashlights in our hands.
Odalisque Magazine visited the premiere of Satan's Delirium - part two of three in an interactive
performing arts project. It´s set in a five thousand square meter large abandoned office building just outside Stockholm.
The play is based on The Master and Margarita by russian author Mikhail Bulgakov.
During the show we meet Woland (Satan) and the Prosecutor (who, from what I understand,
has murdered the journalist Margarita and other members of the resistance movement she was a part of).
We also discover what has happened by walking through the deserted office landscape,
discovering the environments that are made by hundreds of creators.
– The artists have been given freedom to create almost anything they want, says the project's art curator Andreas Blom.
The various rooms are the stages, and on them we find traces of people who have disappeared.
Depending on where we are in the corridors and what we have time to take part in we build our own reality of what has happened.
Satan's Delirium gives us a fictional glimpse of what it may be like to live in a totalitarian country defined by fear,
torture and oppression.
Just experiencing the unpleasant feeling that we are part of an ignorant crowd makes it worthwhile to participate in the show.
Many thoughts arise: Whose job is it to scrutinize politicians if we do not have journalists who are free to do their job?
Which lens do we as citizens choose to wear?
Satan's Delirium provides commentary on history, the present and the future.
Woland (Angela Wand) performs in a harsh manner. She constantly challenges the audience
and questions our behavior and responsibilities; Why do we not do anything?
Should the Prosecutor really become a free man?
Despite the good performance quality, it becomes a bit difficult to keep up with the plotline.
There are parts of the show that feels unnecessary. For example Woland begins to perform magic tricks in the last scene - which does not contribute to the narrative. Sure, the actor is a circus performer and has a lot of talents, but in this case less is more.
Satan's Delirium has affected me in a lot of ways and made me think.
I keep returning to the thought of what would have happened if I
or someone else in the audience suddenly had become more involved.
How interactive can this performing arts project be? Is it able to make a speech to the public?
What if someone pushed the story in a whole new direction?
However, I was a coward. I didn’t speak up. Will the next visitor be more brave?
Who knows, that person may fill in a voice that was missing.
