All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women

merely Players; They have their Exits and their

Entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts.

(Shakespeare, c. 1598-1600/1997:414)

 

A year ago, President Obama himself cited East Germany as a “cautionary tale of what could happen when vast, unchecked surveillance turned citizens into informers and persecuted people for what they said in the privacy of their own homes.’  The project Someone or Other is inspired by stories from the past, but addresses dilemmas at the heart of modern society: How should privacy be redefined in the age of surveillance? How should we deal with the blurring line between privacy and security? Are we willing to trade our liberty for security? 

 

The starting point for this project is the former Ministry of State Security of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), commonly know as the Stasi. Representing one of the most intrusive surveillance networks in modern time, the Stasi sought to infiltrate personal life to collect information about people, what they did and what they said, in order to identify potential threats. However, today mass surveillance systems have yet again become part of our economic, political and social lives. Everything that we once projected onto the Stasi seems to be accepted in states with strong democratic and anti-totalitarian traditions.

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Performed at:

21/03 – NL – Festival Cement – 's Hertogenbosch

22/03 – NL – Festival Cement – 's Hertogenbosch

23/03 – NL – Festival Cement – 's Hertogenbosch

27/01 – NL – Theater kikker – Utrecht

26/01 – NL – Theater kikker – Utrecht

25/01 – NL – Theater aan het Spui – Den Haag

20/01 – NL – Generale Oost – Arnhem
19/01 – NL – Generale Oost – Arnhem (Nederlandse première)

10/12 – NO – Black Box teater – Oslo

09/12 – NO – Black Box teater – Oslo

08/12 – NO – Black Box teater – Oslo

07/12 – NO – Black Box teater – Oslo (Premiere)