“October”

With October is thus a homage to Chaplin’s universe and physical language, entirely in his spirit: A work for and about the people who, in desperation and in the name of survival, are pushed into insane actions, perhaps only surpassed by the circumstances that made the unthinkable not only thinkable but also feasible. October operationalizes Chaplin’s legacy and language, live on stage, in a frank and existential meta-reflection on the fundamental conditions of survival, drawing connections between historical and contemporary fault lines with the crisis of democracy in Europe and the threat of a new world war as context. It is said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it… but perhaps the deeper truth is that those who do not remember what creates stable and just societies are doomed to not being able to maintain or recreate them.

Formally, October is a wordless, magical-realistic work that blends slapstick, surrealism, dance, and psychology in the tension between life, death, poetry, and corporeal humor.

The central dramaturgical device of the work fuses Chaplin’s language and artistic legacy with the existential challenges of his time, with Mute Comp’s raw, contemporary style in addressing the crises and necessities we face in Europe and beyond.