“Be yourself, show yourself!
There’s nothing to be ashamed of!”
That’s one of the most notorious imperatives of contemporary society. It seems that today the world is completely open, ready to accept us, as we are – no more restraints, no more shame. Contemporary media culture demands to be open, to share opinions, to express feelings, to be critical, to be entertaining… It looks shame is something from the past century, something pre-modern. Shame simply doesn’t fit our contemporary identities.
But at the deeper level we can sense that shame does not disappear – we just repressed its symbolic function. In spite of denial, shame remains secret structure of each subjectivity – persists as some stubborn surplus of humanity. In contemporary media culture shame is ashamed of itself. Media reality became a masquerade of insecure individuals hiding behind their public faces and defending their dignity – hiding their shame.
And so is our performance. Hiding behind characters, defending their dignity and denying their shame is our basic performing strategy. In case of Shame we created numerous fictional, biographic, fairy, allegorical and absurd characters and hide ourselves. We use the stage as a space for travesty of fake identities.
Conceived and devised by the group.
Performers: Anita Wach, Darko Japelj, Grega Zorc, Katarina Stegnar, Magdalena Tuka, Marie-Louise Stentebjerg
Concept and direction: Bojan Jablanovec
Costumes: Via Negativa with help of Ajda Tomazin
Stage technician and light design: Igor Remeta
Producer: Špela Trošt
Production: Via Negativa with support of Ministry of Culture of RS and the City of Ljubljana
Partner: KUD Moment Maribor
Premiere: 2 NOV 2011, The Old Power Station Ljubljana
Duration: 90 min