Michael Laub / Remote Control Productions

  

© Ann Lindberg

"It was just a matter of time before he’d lose that grand top-floor view and find himself down on the street looking up. He wouldn’t even have her around to complain anymore. Well, she was always telling him he reminded her of a character from some French film where everything looks dirty, including the cups of coffee."

CREDITS

Directed by Michael Laub
Scenography Michael Laub
Music Larry Steinbachek,Urban Reese
Text Daniel Halfen, Michael Laub
Sound Magnus Borg
Lighting Anders Österberg
Lighting technician Henry Andersson
Production assistant Anette Gullberg
Assistant director Magnus Borg
Assistant Sara von Ehrenheim
Performers Jennifer Baerselman, Johanna Bergman, Nelson Cox, Charlotte Engelkes, Peter Falkenborg, Malla Grapengiesser Ehrs, Eva Gustafsson, Daniel Halfen, Jarmo Huusko, Martha Oldenburg, Mikael Persbrandt, Urban Reese, Bill Rubino, Sari Saastamoinen, Daniela Tomasisi, Gun Öhman

Produced by Moderna Museet (Stockholm)

PRESS

Monica Nieckels, Moderna Museet, Stockholm
(...) This is visual theatre where image and sound are primary factors. The music by Michael Laub and Larry Steinbachek has a narrative function that indicates a state of mind. It links the different, otherwise unrelated, scenes. Rewind Song combines theatre and sound, rhythm with fragmentary expression of film and video in search of a suitable theatrical language. (...) Beautiful, brutal, desperate, the images change and flicker like fireflies in the night, all in a strictly controlled choreography.

Ulla-Britt Edberg, Svenska Dagbladet, Stockholm, 19.02.1989
Though scenes from Rewind Song may seem fragmentary, each one is neatly chiselled out of the other and fits within the larger framework. Laub has produced a fascinating play. In my opinion, his best so far. The relaxed approach and the professionalism shown by the 16 performers is astonishing, especially because most of them are non-professional actors. They are superb. Rewind Song reflects the mood of our times.

Jan Nyberg, Bergens Tidende, Norway, 15.09.1989
Out of the ordinary, Rewind Song carried off the palm awarded by the Bergen Theatre Festival. An exquisite group of actors in combination with intense, monumental and inspiring music by Larry Steinbachek and spectacular beautiful lighting made this performance a true theatre event of a rare sort. (...) The actors used their bodies with a control and virtuosity that left us breathless. (...) Frivolous and refined body culture without inhibition. (...) Crude and tender conf/using and explicit at the same time. An ocean of carefully built clichés that got brutally torn down only to be restored.

Ingvar von Malmborg, 20.03.1989
...Remote Control, Sweden’s most extraordinary theatre company, has performed at the prestigious Venice Biennale and festivals throughout Europe. Nor is their style like any other. The intention of director Michael Laub is to show us the world of illusion of the media, film clichés and TV flicker; a world of illusion of cool appetites and exploited human relations where every attempt to achieve a personal identity only serves to reinforce the sensation of unreality. Despair and humour are the core of Rewind Song, the unpredictability of the work tends to sharpen the audience’s attention and keep spectators riveted to their seats.

Ingvild Horn, Bergens Arbeiderblad, Norway, 15.09.1989
(...) In the firm and precise direction of Michael Laub, irony, humour and seriousness are all well balanced. (...) It is the visual expression – the alliance between the bare steel stage and the dancing, elastic acting – and the rhythmical, empowering music, that are the basic elements. The marking of the frequent changes of scenes with short blackouts gave also added strength. Rewind Song offered an outburst of impressions and associations. An aesthetic experience, filled with beautiful, intense, fascinating – and cold – images. For pure pleasure and reflections.