Oxygen
2024 | Stage Performance
"Oxygen" by Ivan Vyrypaev, a theatrical manifesto for the 00s, is presented as an antidote to the "psychopolitical suffocation" of Gen Z. A troupe of 25 individuals participating in an 80-minute spiritual rave experience envisioned by director George Koutlis, with live audio-reactive visuals by Uncharted Limbo.
Description
Directors' Note: A rave party, a bacchanalian non-stop beat, a generational manifesto, beings vibrating to the DJ's music, searching for a lost religiosity, giving the impression that if they stop dancing, they will stop breathing. They are looking for what oxygen is, what makes us breathe, and what deprives us of air. They try to talk to the audience alongside music, which brings the body into a trance. Two DJs at the decks, 11 actors, and a 12-member chorus of dancers. All of them are members of Generation Z. They dance non-stop, they get drunk, they fall in love, and some of them grab the microphones and talk. Based on Ivan Vyrypaev's play, "Oxygen," with texts devised by the actors, we will tell the story of Sasha and Sasha, who open their souls―all the dirt, cruelty, and beauty of human nature―trying to answer a primordial, unanswerable question: "What is your oxygen?"
Uncharted Limbo designed 70 minutes of live audio-reactive visuals displayed on 3 massive LED screens encompassing the stage. The visual system was connected directly to the Ableton tracks that were triggered live by the DJs, according to the flow of the actors' performance. We created a series of systems able to transform entirely the mood of the stage:
- From brutalistic night-club-like geometric shapes to smooth viscous liquids
- from violent explosions to the tender entangled network of an actor's conscience.
- The whole show culminates in a fast-paced trip through the universe, encountering 7 million stars and dense volumetric nebulae.
6 different software, 3 programming languages and 5 months of work were used for the production of the visuals. The show premiered at Onassis Stegi for 2 months, and was met with unanimous critical acclaim.