The trailer for the play Syren Hawaii Undulat was composed simultaneously with the play itself. A play about being a relative to someone with dementia. The play’s director, Sophie Villsen, gave us references such as The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. Throughout the process Sophie Villsen and the rest of her team at Kolding Egnteater fed us with information, feeling in the need of being incorporated as the play found its form, as well as the development of props, abstract state of minds, and symbols. It was a symbiotic collaboration were Ragna entered the role as the cinematic, visual interpreter.
When it came to the translation of feeling powerless, quite as you do, when your loved one becomes less and less of the one you love. We interpreted it through the symbol of sand slithering through the fingers, impossible to hold on to.
In trying to depict the main characters demented father, the idea of him metamorphosed into a black abstract figure, deprived of any humanity except for what the daughter’s grieving eyes gave told of a once lived life. We also needed to portray the decaying of a mind diagnosed with dementia. We chose to highlight it through our chose of location and the production design: The disease’s destruction in shown in the abandoned house, overgrown, overtaken by nature wrapped in warm colors signaling another kind of fairytale. Another kind of journey: A wrecked home. An empty mind.
In the mist of the emptiness, we were asked to include confetti, as it would appear in the play. To match the scene and the setting, we let it burst into an explosion – an explosion of emotions inhabitant in every person living in that limbo.
The trailer is presented as a journey of representation, at first glance it may just function as something enchanting, interesting. At the second glance it might reveal a little bit more. After watching the play, you might understand the references, use of props, and symbols even better or just a little bit. It is another kind of journey.
We also produced a trailer for another theatrical performance, Dr. Möllers Musikalske Medicinshow, but this time the words of reference was decay, depravation, SHOWTIME. Take a look at Dr. Möllers increasing madness here.
