Arsen – Ein Rokokothriller

When the doors to the Cuvilliés Theatre open, we step into the dreamy world of the Rococo, which transfigures our senses through the richness of its artistic approach to fashion, architecture, music and painting. But what lies behind the magnificent facades, the luxurious gowns and masks, behind the scenes of this dazzling splendour? When so much time and effort is spent in maintaining an appearance and lavishly decorating the outside, then everything will be simmering on the inside, with plenty of room for intrigue, seduction and fatal vanity. With his newly developed ballet evening, Jo Strømgren dives into the decadence of a double morality which splendidly shows off its virtue in order to conceal its actual essence. In the wild arsenic intoxication, the poison runs rampant, injures and distorts the bodies and invites everyone to a bacchanalian dance of death.

The Norwegian artist Jo Strømgren works not only as a choreographer, but also as an author in theatre and film, director and set designer and has completed a vast number of significant projects around the globe with his own dance company. His interest in combining various artistic and theatrical forms with each other serves to enhance the concept of story-telling and his vision of bringing these stories to the stage in a way that is as penetrating and multi-layered as possible. Driven by the wide range of motifs in the rococo world and inspired by the powerful music of the era, he has developed a ballet evening which – combined with the use of text and voice – guarantees a tension-packed thriller that moves between different times and different arts!