Three actors from St.Gallen send nothing

What happens to us when we are gradually displaced by algorithms and artificial intelligence? Oliver Losehand, Matthias Albold and Marcus Schäfer from the St.Gallen Theater investigate this question in the “Supervacuum Radio Show”. In their theatrical podcast they tell of a world that is terrifyingly close to ours.

—

The first time it was even more fun. Oliver Losehand, Matthias Albold and Marcus Schäfer rushed like heroes in their first “Needless Radio Show» in the first corona wave. Suddenly, the three actors from the St.Gallen Theater could no longer perform. “We were banned from the stage,” says Losehand. “But we didn’t want to be silent.” So they did research, wrote texts and the three of them recorded a fictional radio show.

–

In it they addressed non-occurrence, being thrown back on oneself, self-optimization within one’s own four walls. «It is not possible to leave it hanging. Especially not in the crisis, ”says the show. After all, you have to be “fit and vigilant when the train starts rolling again.” Back then, as mentioned, it was still funny, at least for the privileged. Sitting at home for a bit, watching Netflix and pedaling on the exercise bike. Until the virus is gone.

Fill the yawning void with useless things

It is now clear: this may take a while. “We ride the infinite wave, la ola infinita, past the last chunks of ice from the melted polar ice caps”, is the motto of the start of the second “Supervacuum Radio Show”, the now available on Spotify is. Now the three actors are no longer sitting in the same radio studio, each is in his own vacuum. This “yawning emptiness that I am” should finally be filled again with “useless information, actions, repetitions”:

“Please let it arise again in my skull, this wonderfully mindless super vacuum!”

The three want to return to this normalcy. They have obviously lost their laughter.

–

This dystopia is musically supported by the band Sarkis. Their shimmering sounds and surf guitars are reminiscent of the beaches to which you can no longer travel, and in punk rock style they chant: “You are online! Everything has to be online! ”

–

The three actors are broadcasting from a terribly desolate world. At the same time, it seems frighteningly close to ours. The protagonists are self-centered, in love with themselves, they send incessantly but no longer receive anything.

“Hello? Are you still there? Do you hear me? ”These questions are repeated over and over again during the three-quarters of an hour’s program. On the one hand, it sounds like the technical problems at the beginning of a video conference. But also after the uncertain question of an influencer who makes sure between her Instagram posts whether her audience is still there, whether she is still getting the likes.

A sex slave on an oil rig

The amazing thing about the “Supervacuum Radio Show” is that although it seems like it was made for the pandemic, it was born long before Corona. As part of the “Nachtzug” series of the St.Galler Theater, Losehand, Albold and Schäfer have already staged their program live twice in the Lokremise. The first time in 2019, the second time shortly before Corona.

–

Now the virus has played the three actors in the disinfected hands. Her main topic was suddenly more topical than ever: the superfluous person. Where are we going when we are gradually replaced by algorithms and artificial intelligence? How do we deal with digitization? They asked themselves such fundamental questions during the research, says Oliver Losehand:

“We didn’t just want to talk about hand washing and keeping our distance.”

It all ends with a sex slave on an oil rig and a redemption fantasy with a vaccine injected by a musical star, that much is revealed. And the next “Supervacuum Radio Show” will hopefully take place on stage again. Live, analog and interpersonal.

The “Supervacuum Radio Show” is on Spotify available.