Flying Pickle Performing Arts Presents an Iron Lion Production of Out At Sea by Slawomir Mrozek.
“Who are you having for lunch today?” If you were stuck on a raft with no food and two strangers for company how would you survive being devoured by your companions? What is the proper way to decide whose rump and sirloin finds its way to the dinner table? Cannibalism has never been so democratic.
In 1960’s censorship ridden Poland, satirist Slawomir Mrozek was forced to find many unusual angles with which to carry his biting comments against the Soviet regime. One of his regular techniques was to write absurd comedic plays that carried a dark message beneath the laughter. Perhaps his finest one-act effort is the little known, Out At Sea. Written in 1962 (and translated by Nicholas Bethell in 1969) this single-set black comedy traces the fortunes of three very different castaways who attempt to find a democratic way of deciding which of them shall be eaten by the other two. The arguments become steadily more outlandish, the bullying and sycophancy more intense, until the intervention of a passing postman and an old manservant take the play into a hilarious surreal overdrive, building to a chilling climax.
In an era of high stakes international politics and increasing social upheaval, Out At Sea is just as relevant today as it was in 1962.
This production was staged by Iron Lion theatre company (the forerunner to Flying Pickle Performing Arts) at The King's Head Theatre in Islington, London. This video is an excerpt from the performance on July 1st, 2006.
The performance features:
Karl Sedgwick as Thin
Rachel Esposti as Medium
Sam Devereaux as Fat
To find out more about the history of this production and other Flying Pickle related productions visit: www.flyingpickle.co.uk
Tis production was produced by arrangement with Diogenes Verlag AG Zurich. No ownership of the source material is implied or asserted by Iron Lion or Flying Pickle Performing Arts. This video has been uploaded for archival purposes only.
