DEAD MEAT
| Creators & Performers: | Margrét Sara Guðjónsdóttir Knut Berger |
| Sound: | David Kiers |
| Production: | Panic Productions 2007 / Reykjavik Dance Festival |
The theme of Dead Meat deals with the rigidity in classification of individuals and the connected social and cultural pressure.
In the fight between the individual and the prominent power we see the crystallization of prejudgement, the scripted actions and norms that are forced on us from birth.
The title of the piece, Dead Meat, implicates our wondering about the reality of individuality, about pre-programmed bodies and minds at birth, later on in "their" lives becoming trained grown ups, taking on the face of the authority.
The piece reflects the frustrations and anxiety we carry with us due to the confrontation with these fundamental issues, being boxed up individuals with no way out. "Don´t hate the player, hate the game."
As well as presenting a collage of symbols and signs from religious practices, history and daily life, the performance DeadMeat uses self written text as well as lyrics borrowed from popular music, reflecting all sorts of stereotypes and questioning their meaning.
When taken out of their context and mixed with our own words, these borrowed lyrics and its crude logic help us mirror and present the complications connected to the use of stereotypes.
REVIEWS:
“The piece DEAD MEAT by Margrét Sara Gudjónsdóttir and Knut Berger was shown in Le Cuvier theater in Bordeaux during the Les Grandes Traversees festival on the 4th of November. In DEAD MEAT Margrét Sara and Knut Berger deal with communication between the sexes, power struggles, being inferior and being in charge; existence, titles and roles of people, using clever texts, their acting skills and dance with powerful dub hip hop excerpts. It was moving and fun to see how especially Margrét Sara was able to express oppression of women in a sexy yet powerful way, without diminishing the importance of the issue.
The audience appeared to agree, since the the full house repeatedly applauded the performers back on stage at the end of the show.”
Festival: Festival Les Grandes Traversees, Bordeaux,France
Newspaper: Morgunbladid.is, Icleland.
Date of the publishing: 5. November 2007
Critic: Hrund Gunnsteinsdottir
“The next night at Cuvier of Feydeau, with the second performance of the evening, Dead Meat, a short dance performance of about thirty minutes, we could end up with pleasure. The interpreter Magrét Sara Gudjónsdóttir and dancer Knut Berger, this year in Big Bombay from C. Macras. Against the backdrop of contemporary music and urban culture, the duo explained, in turn, body and personality, referring to concepts such as power and domination, individuality, the love relationship or interpreter in public. With the sole entourage of bare walls, as any industrial wasteland, and a light head to remind the distance-room scene. A show dynamic and contemporary, which does happen unlikely to posterity, but that has had the merit to make us forget the first part of the evening.”
Festival : Festival Les Grandes Traversees, Bordeaux.
Newspaper: Aqui
Date: 14. November 2007
Critic: Helene Fiszpan
“Confident opening of festival. Stylistically secure, artistic power team challenge and seduce.
Raw power, intelligent dramaturgy and energetic outbursts of physicality and sound...
A neutral stage is the arena for a somewhat predictable power play in "Dead Meat". In a calm and controlled fashion Margrét Sara Gudjónsdottir and Knut Berger take turns in leading and following, seducing and manipulating. That the battle alternates between rhythmical and associative word games, and mechanical outbursts of raw, physical energy derived from the devoted and devouring movements of the concert arena, is an exciting twist.
A constant flow of sexual references lies under the surface, but is far from dominant. It is the empty gesture, not the passionate outburst that is relevant, an attempt to make the invisible powers that shape our lives apparent. We are not carried away to emotional heights, but rather seduced into the logic of the performance with its pulsating and consuming rhythms.”
Festival: Oktober dans, Bergen, Norway
Newspaper: Bergens Tidende
Date: 24. October 2008
Critic: Melanie Fieldseth