Stockholm Malmö Bern Göteborg
The Leviathan Camaraderie
The Leviathan Camaraderie is an immersive performance on the hardships of coexistence and the longing for belonging. It takes the form of a secret society, a society that perceives itself as having shouldered the responsibility to lay a foundation for a new, egalitarian order, as an alternative to contemporary civilization. It does so by deconstructing civilization as we know it, exorcising its lingering perversions and establishing an alternative order.
Visitors are invited to join the society as initiates, to learn the rules of the society and participate in egalitarian practice. Visitors who want a more in depth and challenging experience have the possibility to apply for full membership and take part in activities such as “Indulgence”, “Constitutional Meeting” and “Exorcism”. Memberships rules apply to all, and are installed to ensure the quality of service to its members. Once granted full membership in the Leviathan Camaraderie you are welcome to return to any of our meetings.
The Leviathan Camaraderie is an independent part of Poste Restante's diptych exploring Freud’s essay Civilization and Its Discontents. It is a performance series that combines elements from Freud with the labour movement, queer theory and club culture. It is a safe setting wherein the visitors are invited to take a closer look at their own relation to the conventions of power and desire.
Co-produced by MDT (SE).
”The great outcome though is that our preconceptions about ourselves rise to the surface during an evening where it is easy to feel both pampered and exposed. Something like it surely feels to belong to a sect. In that way, performance can also become reality.”
-Ylva Lagercrantz Spindler, Svenska Dagbladet, 2015-10-03
"Once again succeeds Poste Restante – set designer Linn Hilda Lamberg, dramaturgee Stefan Åkesson and curator Erik Berg – in skillfully portraying and congenially engineering fundamental ethical and philosophical dilemmas, and the eternally irresolvable conflict between the individual and society, in a way that compels each visitor to take a stand for oneself. Who am I? What am I? Where am I? ’The Leviathan Camaraderie’ is a thought-provoking performance that efficiently shows in what ways also the most comradely one, even if non-consciously, seems to need and create power structures."
-Örjan Abrahamsson, Dagens Nyheter 2015-10-05
"During other immersive performances I have often been repelled from the work through anxious storytelling or a too large gap between the tone of the performance and the reality of the audience. The Leviathan Camaraderie suffers from neither, but stands firmly on a base of ease and availability, where I, as a visitor, am thrown between being idly neglected, enthusiastically included, horrifically relaxed and comfortably terrified but never forgotten. I feel that I have the freedom to do what I want I give up this freedom in order to fit in and be good. The Leviathan Camaraderie awakens a rare appetite for exploration within me and transforms an otherwise quite cynical visitor to a maneuverable comrade. And I love it! I tried entering the performance as an unwritten page and I write this text as a direct reflection of what I experienced during those four hours. I did things, I left my mobile phone, I filled in a questionnaire, I got a slap in the face by a stranger and I gave one back, I ate lentil soup at a board table, I swore an oath, I joined a cult… pardon. Camaraderie. Did I want to do all of this? I don’t know. But I did it. Was I myself? Yes. And I loved it. Was it real? Yes, I think so. I feel strange."
-Oscar Steen, Scenkonstguiden, 2016-09-09
"The one who is acquainted with left-wing collectives or occupied houses can cheerfully feel at home in the performing arts group Poste Restante’s performance the Leviathan Camaraderie, a work that builds on the participation of the audience. The work, however, is urgent to everyone, at least to those interested in changing traditional norms for socializing and to those who are curious about the difficulties and risks it may cause. /…/ Even those who usually back away from interactive performances are recommended to give the Leviathan Camaraderie a go. An effect of the often comically respectful and safe mood in the performance is that the performance situation itself feels neither forced nor beyond its own control. Which, in turn, appeals to devoted participation."
-Fredrik Österblom, Göteborgs-Posten, 2018-05-24
The Leviathan Camaraderie is an immersive performance on the hardships of coexistence and the longing for belonging. It takes the form of a secret society, a society that perceives itself as having shouldered the responsibility to lay a foundation for a new, egalitarian order, as an alternative to contemporary civilization. It does so by deconstructing civilization as we know it, exorcising its lingering perversions and establishing an alternative order.
Visitors are invited to join the society as initiates, to learn the rules of the society and participate in egalitarian practice. Visitors who want a more in depth and challenging experience have the possibility to apply for full membership and take part in activities such as “Indulgence”, “Constitutional Meeting” and “Exorcism”. Memberships rules apply to all, and are installed to ensure the quality of service to its members. Once granted full membership in the Leviathan Camaraderie you are welcome to return to any of our meetings.
The Leviathan Camaraderie is an independent part of Poste Restante's diptych exploring Freud’s essay Civilization and Its Discontents. It is a performance series that combines elements from Freud with the labour movement, queer theory and club culture. It is a safe setting wherein the visitors are invited to take a closer look at their own relation to the conventions of power and desire.
Co-produced by MDT (SE).
”The great outcome though is that our preconceptions about ourselves rise to the surface during an evening where it is easy to feel both pampered and exposed. Something like it surely feels to belong to a sect. In that way, performance can also become reality.”
-Ylva Lagercrantz Spindler, Svenska Dagbladet, 2015-10-03
"Once again succeeds Poste Restante – set designer Linn Hilda Lamberg, dramaturgee Stefan Åkesson and curator Erik Berg – in skillfully portraying and congenially engineering fundamental ethical and philosophical dilemmas, and the eternally irresolvable conflict between the individual and society, in a way that compels each visitor to take a stand for oneself. Who am I? What am I? Where am I? ’The Leviathan Camaraderie’ is a thought-provoking performance that efficiently shows in what ways also the most comradely one, even if non-consciously, seems to need and create power structures."
-Örjan Abrahamsson, Dagens Nyheter 2015-10-05
"During other immersive performances I have often been repelled from the work through anxious storytelling or a too large gap between the tone of the performance and the reality of the audience. The Leviathan Camaraderie suffers from neither, but stands firmly on a base of ease and availability, where I, as a visitor, am thrown between being idly neglected, enthusiastically included, horrifically relaxed and comfortably terrified but never forgotten. I feel that I have the freedom to do what I want I give up this freedom in order to fit in and be good. The Leviathan Camaraderie awakens a rare appetite for exploration within me and transforms an otherwise quite cynical visitor to a maneuverable comrade. And I love it! I tried entering the performance as an unwritten page and I write this text as a direct reflection of what I experienced during those four hours. I did things, I left my mobile phone, I filled in a questionnaire, I got a slap in the face by a stranger and I gave one back, I ate lentil soup at a board table, I swore an oath, I joined a cult… pardon. Camaraderie. Did I want to do all of this? I don’t know. But I did it. Was I myself? Yes. And I loved it. Was it real? Yes, I think so. I feel strange."
-Oscar Steen, Scenkonstguiden, 2016-09-09
"The one who is acquainted with left-wing collectives or occupied houses can cheerfully feel at home in the performing arts group Poste Restante’s performance the Leviathan Camaraderie, a work that builds on the participation of the audience. The work, however, is urgent to everyone, at least to those interested in changing traditional norms for socializing and to those who are curious about the difficulties and risks it may cause. /…/ Even those who usually back away from interactive performances are recommended to give the Leviathan Camaraderie a go. An effect of the often comically respectful and safe mood in the performance is that the performance situation itself feels neither forced nor beyond its own control. Which, in turn, appeals to devoted participation."
-Fredrik Österblom, Göteborgs-Posten, 2018-05-24