Shopping and fucking
Shopping and Fucking, Mark Ravenhill’s 1996 British realistic drama, shocked the British theater scene by debuting taboos such as sexuality, homosexuality, prostitution and the use of vulgar language during its early performances. Later the drama co-created the then new wave of stage poetics, “In-yer-face theatre” and attracted a completely new audience to the auditorium. Today, the text remains alive and distinctly relevant in his critique of capitalism and the struggle for survival of the younger generations.
In the drama, we follow the protagonist Mark, who leaves his friends and roommates, Lulu and Robbie, because he goes to a drug rehab clinic. In addition to the emotional shock, the latter find themselves in a situation where they have to provide for themselves financially, and this is where their battle in the labour market, the battle for survival, the battle for money begins. Unprepared, they find themselves in Brian’s grip, the only one who has already conquered the reins of capitalism and the dogma of the world in which they found themselves: “Money is civilization and civilization is money.” They found themselves in a world without big stories, without values, a world of fast food, fast sex and wage labour. This is a world in which, after more than twenty years since the creation of Ravenhill’s drama, we have also found ourselves. A world in which we also do business with the devil to survive and forget about compassion, love, morality. Perhaps it is even worse today, as sometimes these deals are not made in the name of the struggle for survival, but in the name of greed. To date, young people have also conquered capitalistic leverages. So the young man can assimilate into the apathetic world or chooses escapism, while the open question remains, which choice is the lesser evil? To oneself, to one’s fellow man, to society?
Scheduled
Translator:
Irena Duša
Director:
Brina Klampfer Merčnik
Dramaturg:
Nina Kuclar Stiković
Stage designer:
Maruša Mali
Costume designer:
Claudi Sovré Mikelj
Choreographer:
Sebastjan Starič
Language consultant:
Metka Damjan
Cast:
Tamara Avguštin, Borut Doljšak, Vid Klemenc, Timotej Novaković, Primož Vrhovec
Light designers:
Nina Kuclar Stiković, Matej Primec
Sound designer:
Mateja Starič
Light design consultant:
Nastja Miheljak
Photographers:
Asiana Jurca Avci, Claudi Sovré
Executive producer:
Branislav Cerović
Co-production:
Mini teater, Kulturno umetniško društvo Krik, Javni sklad Republike Slovenije za kulturne dejavnosti
Premiere:
18th February 2022
Duration:
120 min