OBLIVIA approach all the different aspects that constitute “pleasure”, employing catchy songs somewhere between punk rock and musical as well as sounds produced by the body alongside the (electronic) tones by multiple award-winning composer Yiran Zhao. Thus, the songs that make up “Pleasure” meander between topics simultaneously very commonplace as they are universal, telling tales of a mundane beauty cult, of eternal promises of growth, of leisure stress and selfcare trends, but also of the grand questions relating to the meaning of our existence. For at the end, there is only the void – right?

“Pleasure” is the third and final instalment in the “Emotions and Politics” series in which OBLIVIA, whose core team has been augmented by sound performer Juha Valkeapää for the first time, trace the multilayered state of emotional conditions and their personal as well as political implications over three music theatre productions: “Verdrängen Verdrängen Verdrängen”, the first part of the trilogy, saw its very successful premiere back in 2020 during the ECLAT Festival for New Music in Stuttgart, Germany, while the second instalment, the NOperas! Production” “Obsessions”, premiered at Theater Bremen at the beginning of 2022 and again in the winter at Oper Wuppertal, each time with a different, local cast, respectively. “Pleasure”, in turn, again premiering in Stuttgart in February 2023, closes the circle that navigated the emotional within the political and the political effects our feeling-driven upheavals generate.

Touring information

Running time at full length	70 min.
Interval	no
Stage required (height/width/depth)	10+ 10+ 5 m
No. of people on tour	7
No. of performers	6
Used language	Performed in English
English synopsis	The play, manuscript available, lyrics in English
Availability for workshop and educational work	Do What You Saw workshop

Key personnel

Concept by	+ devised by: Oblivia working group
Performers	Timo Fredriksson, Annika Tudeer, Juha Valkeapää + Guitarist: Thilo Ruck, Mezzosoprano: Gabriele Lesch, Composer, electronic live music : Yiran Zhao
Lighting design	Meri Ekola and Stine Hertel
Costume design	Tua Helve
Other credits	Outside eye: Alice Ferl, Communications: Nassrah-Alexia Denif, Lisa Carolin Schubert, Production manager: Jenny Nordlund

Contact information

Contact	Jenny Nordlund
Position	Production manager
Telephone	+358 45 131 8313
Email	jenny@oblivia.fi

Links

• Home page Oblivia
• Materials for presenters including photos and riders
• Video material

Attachments

• Dossier_Oblivia_Pleasure