October

The project’s motivation, rationale, and purpose: Totalitarianism is stirring. Democracy is under hybrid attack as an institution and as an idea. Across Europe and beyond, families are once again fleeing in the name of survival, and the notion of a third world war is rising while the climate clock ticks in the background. More than ever, we need the ability of art to convey, uncover, visualize – and transform. Mute Comp Physical Theatre will take part in all of this! 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.