I Wish the Earth Would Open Up and Swallow Me

Première 2. april 2021, Ljubljana
The first Slovenian performance
Running time 1 hour 30 minutes. No intermission.

Concept and script Varja Hrvatin
Authors Lina Akif, Maša Grošelj, Varja Hrvatin, Vid Merlak, Mia Skrbinac
Video designer and music Vid Merlak

Performers
Lina Akif
Maša Grošelj

I Wish the Earth Would Open Up and Swallow Me is an interactive performative experiment that decodes the performative potential of social media through the dramaturgy of internet platforms. Through establishing a theatrical space and time within a Facebook group as a place of a virtual community, the performance explores social media as a strategy of escape, a search for belonging and a place of active social inclusion. The performers are challenged in different internet formats through games and tasks of Instagram stories, TikTok challenges, tutorials and vlogs to represent (and embody) the position of a contemporary influencer. As part of the Facebook community, the audience actively takes part in the competition for the new ambassador position for a fictional cosmetic company LalaLush, by valuing the performers with likes and comments, thus consequently affecting the course and outcome of the game. The game that becomes more and more emotionally challenging and intimate reveals anxiety, fear and insecurity as the main collateral damage of the voidness of online representation. Furthermore, it opens up the question of how far are we willing to go in this pursuit for validation. If social media is a game that must play to exist, how can we emerge as winners?