In their mutual work the composer Malin Bång and the author Pat To Yan place the focal point on the friendship between two women: In a not further specified repressive system a machine rules as king. It is fed with trash left behind after demonstrations – which is not useless at all, but rather just the opposite, it serves as a meticulous tracking device: it allows one to conclude entire biographies that can subsequently be deactivated. The friends Dana and Sara try to assert themselves against this totalitarian power. But when the two of them choose different paths of resistance, their relationship is ruthlessly put to the test. For Dana and her environment confront the unjust regime in a radical manner, whereas Sara prefers a quieter revolution.
Pat To Yan, born in 1975 in Hong Kong, examines in his first libretto in a metaphorical, allegorical, and at the same time brutally concrete fashion the issue of how unconditional resistance must be. In his text, levels of reality and dreams shift, and they merge congenially through the music. His characters are inventive creations of mythological figures in Europe and China. During the season 2021/2022 Pat To Yan will be working as the in-house author at Nationaltheater Mannheim.
The music of the Swedish composer Malin Bång creates a cosmos filled with surprising and contrasting sounds – ranging from restrained intimacy to querulent abrasiveness. Her composition carries on the rhythm and melody of Pat To Yan’s libretto and creates connections as well as boundaries between the two protagonists’ realms of experience.