Here, the blackbox theater meets the theater of the Black Arts.
Recognizing herself as deeply limited by natural explanations, Nyberg wonders what might be learned from the supernatural side. It’s a question of personal experience and private dilemmas, and also one- according to Nyberg- for an overly rationalized world. Horrible Mixtures dives into the middle of belief and skepticism, mashing up experiences, knowledges and sciences usually held distantly apart.
Horrible Mixtures uses a dilettante approach to mentalism – assuming homemade methods for mind reading and mediation. Nyberg uses these methods to look for the capacity to imagine different connections between thoughts, language, fantasy, the future, bodies and spectators.
Let’s not ask ourselves whether we believe in magic, or if it really works, but what magic can do. Can magic help us blur the boundaries between words such as natural, unnatural and supernatural? Can the physical effects of thought help bridge the imaginary gap between the body and the mind, the known and the unknown? Can revisiting ritual, communal, and mental experiences create new shared fantasies between strangers? And can such experiences help us to stop knowing, stop understanding, and stop making sense?
The next performance of Horrible Mixtures is at Side Step festival in Helsinki, the 6-8th March 2017.
Press (in swedish/danish): Svenska Dagbladet, Sydsvenska Dagbladet, BoraBora Platform
A Horrible Mixtures portolio was made with the help of graphic designer Maryam Fanni and artist Jens Strandberg. Send me an email and I’ll send one to you, or you find the PDF here: Horrible Mixtures Portfolio
