After the success of the theatrical concerts based on the work of Sarah Kane (The SK Concert) and Heiner Müller (The HM Concert), PERMANENT DESTRUCTION is taking a new route. In PAIN AGAINST FEAR, Naomi Velissariou takes off her masks and confronts herself and her audience. Whereas hatred in all its forms (self-hatred, misogyny, misandry and hatred of life) was the key to the first two parts of the trilogy, the third part is an attempt to take on fear as the breeding ground for that hatred.
PLEASE NOTE:
standing theatrical concert
concept and direction
Naomi Velissariou
sound design
Joost Maaskant
performers
Naomi Velissariou & Joost Maaskant
light design
Bart van den Heuvel
costume design
Bibi Trompetter
director
Floor Houwink ten Cate
co-producers
Naomi Velissariou Foundation and Theater Utrecht
Post-dystopian music theatre
In PAIN AGAINST FEAR, a personal revelation is coupled with an invitation to the audience. An invitation to exorcise your own fear by celebrating it with others, dancing collectively to the rhythm of your individual pain. With the absolute conviction that acceptance of pain can soothe our suffering. PAIN AGAINST FEAR is mindfulness on speed. The music – moving between techno, trap, hardcore and punk – is a merciless mixture of the producer Joost Maaskant’s strong sound and Velissariou’s stubborn attempt at vulnerability.
PERMANENT DESTRUCTION is both the title of a post-dystopian music theatre trilogy and the name of a band in which Velissariou and Maaskant aim to put paid to certain taboos in contemporary visual culture. Sentiments such as self-hatred and fear of failure are issues to be avoided in that culture, because they are not sexy or instagrammable. After all, you can’t brand yourself based on expressions of pain. Or can you?
