Direction/Choreography/Performance: Sonia Roshal.

 

Humour Me Before The End of the World is a contemplation on power, violence, justice and mortality with the incorporation of the irony and theatricality of last century’s Cold War propaganda imagery, Butoh motives and nostalgia for political theatre of the 60s.

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The work is devised for a song by Charles Mingus from 1961 Oh Lord, Don’t Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me and the quote by Mikhail Bulgakov from his legendary novel Master and Margarita: "every kind of power is a form of violence against people and that there will come a time when neither the power of the Caesars, nor any other kind of power will exist. Man will enter the kingdom of truth and justice, where no such power will be necessary.” 

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This performance is a reaction to political deja vu present in the world at the moment: degradation of the relationships between East and West, Russia and West in particular, the usage of such terms as the rehabilitation of the Soviet Union, the comeback of fascism, a New Cold War, etc. Out loud threats to use nuclear power, wide usage of propaganda, the possibility of a new World War.