This opera-performance by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė, Lina Lapelytė is an urgent, beautiful and moving performance that crosses the boundaries between music, theatre and visual art. Acclaimed across the globe since it won the prestigious Golden Lion at the 2019 Venice Biennale, it has been heralded as one of the best artworks of the year by Kunstkritikk, and the New York Times, “This year’s showstopper, whose deep ecological engagement comes with irrepressible joy”.

The work is a beach, built indoors and viewed from above by its audience. Upon the beach are families, sunbathers, dogs, children; playing cards, reading books, putting on sun tan lotion. From within the soundworld of this beach rises a chorus of songs: everyday songs, songs of worry and of boredom, songs of almost nothing. These songs are stories, where the singing sunbathers unfold their thoughts. As these multiply, everyday micro-events slowly give rise to broader, more distributed anxieties on a planetary-scale, anthropogenic climate change.

The setting – a crowded beach in summer – paints an image of laziness and lightness. In this context, the message follows suit: contemporary crises unfold easily, softly – like a pop song on the very last day on Earth. As an audience member, watching this scene unfold from a celestial height, the effect is chilling. We watch ourselves daydreaming through the climate crisis.

For more information and tickets, please see Borealisfestival.no

                                             Photo: Andrej Vasilenko