Instant Happiness
Synopsis
A visually striking music theatre production told through eight cellists, raw music and powerful choreography.Our throwaway society effortlessly feeds our insatiable hunger for instant gratification. INSTANT HAPPINESS is simply for sale.
Via Berlin and Cello8ctet Amsterdam investigate the obsessive Western demand for disposable fashion at rock-bottom prices, which leads to degrading working conditions in Asian garment factories. How does this system of supply, demand and suffocating power relations — a system we created ourselves — actually work? Why are we unable to escape it? Is it possible to do good within a bad system? Or is the system stronger than free will?
Premiered at the International Oerol theater festival and was also then opening show of the Cello Biennale 2016.
Instant Happiness is part 1 of the ‘INSTANT’ triptych Via Berlin & Cello Octet Amsterdam created together. The other parts are Instant Love and Instant Loneliness.
Reviews
“Instant Happiness shows just how eager we are, how, as social creatures, we follow one another in our insatiable greed. Those who try to step outside the system and make different choices are inevitably brought back into line.”
— Cultuur Online
“The music theatre makers of Via Berlin like to sink their teeth into major themes; previously, they created a trilogy about war. Now, human impulses are on the menu.”
— OneWorld