De skyddssökande

Plot:
In "De skyddssökande" (The Suppliants) by Aischylos, director Dritëro Kasapi stages the drama both through on-stage performances and via a video link from Palestine. This ancient play, dating back over 2000 years, portrays the story of 50 Egyptian women who flee across the Mediterranean to Greek city of Argos to escape forced marriages. They seek the protection of King Pelasgos, who, in turn, allows the citizens of Argos to make the decision. If they choose to protect the women, they will also face the imminent danger of war against the suitors and their army.

Idea:
The goal was to create the illusion that the actors on stage and the filmed actresses were interacting live through a Zoom meeting. The Palestinian actresses had been filmed separately in advance and then edited to synchronize them during the choral parts which partly were said in unision. These edits were to be disguised by different kinds of disturbance, so that they would appear as connection problems with the wifi. The dialogue in the filmed sequences needed to be timed with each other, as well as with the performance on stage. The team worked simultaneously with an Arabic and a Swedish script. The material was divided into sequences and programmed in QLab to enable live triggering

Process:
I gathered the filmed portraits into a collage resembling Zoom. To conceal the edits in the material, I processed it with different kinds of digital disturbance like glitches, shifts in colors and filters to give the illusion that the connection sometime went down. During the rehearsal we continously tested the projections and the actions on stage to ensure the precise timing for the dialogues, as well as to measure moments of listening and pauses. The aim was to create the illusion that the whole performance was happening live, which also worked out fine. Audience, reviewers and even other actors working at the theatre, but that wasn't directly involved in the repetions, thought that the Palesinan actresses participated online every night

Techniques:
Premiere, After Effects, VDMX, Qlab

Productionyear: 2018