Social Error

The starting point of this project is a question:
Why can’t man create a social form in which the majority could live happily?

Asking the question in itself gives a hint that the goal hasn’t been achieved. So it is
a very strong statement about the world. The issue has to be examined from many
aspects, otherwise the statement remains too general - and this is exactly what we
examined during rehearsals and what we keep working on to date. Examination.
Research.

The show itself does not want to answer the above question (since we do not have a
ready answer either), it only examines the set of issues linked to it. To call attention
to the fact that things are not going well and that we should do something about it.
Together and each on his/her own, both.

The show bears a title with a dual theme. Social error is a bell that rings inside you
when you see that something around you is grossly out of order, but still seems to
work as a system. Or it is in order, but is really bad. You know it is bad and yet it
seems to function. And you can’t do anything. Or are perhaps already thinking how
you could.

Social error is,
when homeless people freeze to death on the street, while huge real estate buildings
are standing empty and food is piling up in the stores.
when your bills are unpaid, while your working your ass off in an honest job
when children are considered criminals or are forced to commit crimes
when we fall prey to to political games
when individual business interests toss masses into squalor
when we don’t defend those in need of defense
when history repeats itself when it shouldn’t
when masses have to leave their homes and have nowhere to go, so they end up in
over-crowded camps
when the government represses peaceful demonstrators with police help
when you have to demonstrate since nothing else helps
when even that doesn’t help
when teachers terrorize children
when children beat up teachers
when the stronger takes everything from the weaker
when we do things we don’t want to do for money
when someone’s unemployed for the third generation in a row
when (s)he has no chance to study
when there is no chance left
when some call others kikes, dirty gypsies, niggers, fags
when we turn away and go on
when a child wants to pick a mine from the ground and its arm is torn off
when one builds a bomb to kil the other
when we’d rather be captives to a drug than living in reality and so end up criminals

when we don’t speak up
when we allow things to happen to us
when we allow things to happen to others
when „war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength” (Orwell: 1984)

creation and running

Conceiver and leader of the project is the Sputnik Shipping Company. The production
is made in an international collaboration with five international and one Hungarian
theatres participating. The show will be mostly rehearsed in Budapest between
24 October 2012 and 13 January 2013. During the rehearsal process we consult
sociologists and experts on the one hand and write and rehearse the theatre show
on the other. The first premiere will be in Graz. They system will be the same
everywhere. In every partner theatre we’ll be rehearsing three-four days and adapt
certain points of the production to local conditions and the actors joining the game.
Then we perform three or four nights. Every venue is a new premiere, every venue
promises a production which is a little different.

the story

We have built a fictional story around the show. Our players have been chosen to
participate in this social survival show through a casting process of several rounds.
The stake is winning the game and gaining the title of the “last person” in Graz/
Mainz/Leipzig/Parma/Cluj or Budapest and getting into the Big Game.

(The alternate title of the production „The last person in ...” is a reference to Orwell’s
novel 1984, whose original title would have been “The Last Man in Europe”. Our
show uses certain elements of the book. )

The game is run by a showman, who comments on it throughout. He is Big Brother,
who distributes points after tasks are fulfilled or make the audience vote, since their
sympathy also counts. The basic team of the game consists of ten Hungarian players,
they are joined by local players or immigrants, who start with a serious disadvantage
and whose situation won’t improve in the future either. Or who knows?

the show

Formally the show is a social survival show, which uses elements of a reality show, a
board game and an experiment in social psychology. Its script basically contains the
order of actions and a set of rules. 50% of the show is improvisation with set rules in
a given time frame, while the other 50% are fixed, rehearsed, ready scenes. All of the
games or actors’ exercises are based on simple rules told in the language of theatre
gestures which correspond to a social form, problem or phenomenon. Or not. The
spectator decides what to see in them.
Between the scenes, i.e. the tasks give to the players there are musical numbers
accompanied by films we cut together about the topic of social error.

background and complementary materials

The show will be accompanied by a website in three languages, as well as a bilingual
publication presenting the creators and different inspirational materials (texts, photos
videos) that we associate with social error. Both can serve to complement what the
audience have seen.