The Symptoms

Recycling, are we? Better love it like it is. A fumbling-tumbling dance commando in the belly of the city. Who’s that eyesore messing with your trash? Must be your uncanny trashman.

You trash! – big cleaning in the big outdoors, with a big scum band

Open-Air-Performance

You Trash! focuses on the topic of waste, this unwelcome by-product of the consumer society. Laced with music, dance, and elements of pantomime, this street performance offers an ironic look at an acute, globally unsolved social problem, while holding a mirror to the audience. The show comprises a series of hilarious and outrageous routines performed by members of the “commando” turning up in various corners of a public space, including etudes on amusing recycling solutions, a living-walking garbage can who wears clothes that can be stuffed with trash and begins to dance when stock full, as well as episodes more attuned to philosophical contemplation. The challenge for each actor is to forge spontaneous links with the public space that serves as the stage and the passers-by dropping on the scene, as well as to respond spontaneously to unforeseen situations as they happen to emerge.

“The pseudo-propaganda lines blasted through the public address system are hilarious, even as the choreography manages to remain meticulous and the content philosophical, with the troupe working away at their anti-globalist contemporary dance statement with evidently unadulterated, sincere conviction. You would be hard pressed to find a single person in the audience whom the show does not sway to make the solemn vow to finally walk to that selective trash container in the projects, starting tomorrow. Plastic trash bags come to life, waste creeps all over the place hurling insults at the stalls, and flattened mineral water bottles struggle to be recycled—clearly a form of reincarnation in their case. By-products degrade to a mix of rock tunes (courtesy of Balázs Barna), while scraps trip the synchronous light fantastic, and critters emerge from a sea of trash.” (Sisso, Magyar Narancs, 2008)

You Trash! has been commissioned by the Merlin Energy Project intended to bring a fresh, creative approach to energy-related issues, while addressing a broad, civilian audience.

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