LITHUANIA

"Meat Factory” is a dance theater piece based on the novel “Macha, ou le IVe Reich”  (FR) (“Maša, arba postfascism” (LT)) by the Ukrainian-Lithuanian writer Jaroslav Melnik. This novel presents a dystopia in which a post-fascist society is depicted. There a lower race of humans is transformed into humanoid animals called “stors”. These creatures perform many labours and are also slaughtered, their meat being used in the food industry. The stor Masha, about whom the action of the novel revolves, is not a person, but love will make her a person. Dima, the journalist of a propagandist media floating downstream will be taking part in the fight against the established system. They escape from their reality to discover that there is another truth beyond lies and propaganda, where everyone is human and stors are no longer stors.

For that dance piece, we use body language, physical theater, contemporary dance (including flamenco and butoh techniques) and performance-art style actions on stage together with electronic soundtracks, text and cinematographic video projections. The different atmospheres are created by a subtle synergy of sound and lights, creating dream scenes as well as reality-like situations. Okarukas raises questions, where do we stand when cruelty and brutality become a norm, when one part of humans are considered to be “not human” by the other elitist side. “Meat Factory” analyzes the assumptions of fascism in a fragmented post-truth contemporary society where propaganda and lies prevail. It examines the causes of human dehumanization when personal well-being is in danger… so a double morality manifests itself. The piece delves into the themes of humanity, freedom and responsibility, the ideas of post-humanism and the fragility of democracy in our contemporary world dominated by capitalism.