Patogeno

Patogeno di Albert Ostermaier

Creazione su commissione per Intercity Festival

A stock broker is suddenly and mysteriously taken from work and placed in quarantine. Strapped to a gurney in a hermetically isolated room, under constant observation, he starts thinking he must have been infected by an unknown virus. A virtual virus that manifests itself by a hum of wasps in his brain, ssuch as those that as a child he closed in a jar, letting them die. This is how a journey begins into this man’s mind – a monologue which traces his life through an associative flow of sentences, thoughts and memories.

The life of a trader only focused on his work, in the virtual world of the Stock Exchange monitors, constantly on. A life whose slogan is never lose control, always be successful and make profits. Pathogen focuses on the everyday madness of our money-driven society, in which humankind can hardly distinguish between facts and fiction. The stream of consciousness which characterises his monologue outlines a disturbing portrait of the modern man, living in a world heavily relying on technology, a world where “pathogen” is the man himself with his life system.

Teatro Sotterraneo’s play is meant for a small audience, who is put in close contact with the body and the voice of this “infected trader.” Through the quarantine – which is also a display case – the monologue is delivered as a conference where a guinea pig is shown to clinical eye of the observer. Is it a disease or treatment that is on display here? Does the infection lie in the winning trader’s attitude of or in loss of control? Meaning is not ready at hand, so we cross the flow of words visualising images and visions as quick flashes look. We are witnessing the character’s exploded consciousness, looking for the viral traces we might recognize in every one of us, in our daily lives, in the market, and in the system which we inevitably belong to.