SOS
By Big Art Group
Directed by Caden Manson
Text and sound by Jemma Nelson
Performance by David Commander, Michael Helland, Mikeah Jennings, Heather Litteer, Willie Mullins, and Ned Stresen-Reuter
Assistant direction and technique by Kathleen Amschoff
Lighting and technique by Dan Hansell, Hillery Makatura, and Jared Mezzocchi
Stage management by Ana Mari de Quesada

Wiener Festwochen at Museums Quartier Halle G, 2008 (Vienna)
Theatre Garrone 2008 (Toulouse)
Usine C Temps d’Image Festival 2009 (Montreal)
The Kitchen, March 19-21 and 26-28, 2009 (New York)
REDCAT 2009 (Los Angeles)
Yerba Buena Arts Center 2009 (San Fransisco)
Teatro Stabile 2010 (Turin)

SOS began as an investigation into the nature of sacrifice within a supersaturated, hyper-acquisitive society. Set in a forest of technology the performance unwinds through overlapping abstract narratives. Animals lost in their native habitat turn on each other in a hopeless contest for survival. Revolutionaries broadcasting from a skeletal studio implode under the pressure of their own rhetoric, and technology addicts enmeshed in a self-created universe seek escape from a tightening web of perception. As these environments collide and overturn, the stage transforms into a celebration of chaos verging towards the freedom of annihilation.

“The theatre of images for the new century is born: rapid, without concessions, violent and consuming itself at 100 miles an hour.” Le Télégramme (Brest)

“As challenging as it is original, as freaked out as it is dazzling, far beyond traditional schemas and classical conceptions.” Midi Libre (Montpellier)

From behind the scenes:

Photos by Heather Litteer and Ned Stresen-Reuter