Iggy Malmborgi performance „b o n e r“
By and with: Iggy Malmborg.
Technical solutions and dramaturgical support: Maike Lond.
Co-producer: Kanuti Gildi SAAL.
In collaboration with : Baltic Cricle Festival (Helsinki), Inkonst / Works at work (Malmö / Copenhagen).
Premiere: 12.11.2014, Baltic Circle Festival, Helsinki.
The show’s protagonist is Iggy himself, but the performance is seemingly led by three speakers: the first (“the mouth”) introduces the objects, the second (“the writer”) introduces progressions and comments, and the third (“the entertainer”) fills dull moments with Booker T. & The M.G.s’ song “Green Onions”. The speakers give the performance its structure, allowing Iggy to engage in self-analysis. I believe the show lets Iggy do the sort of self-revelations, which other people would find embarrassing and which generally don’t come across as sincere. But like we find out at the end of the show – anything you can’t do yourself can be done by theatre tricks.
The same sentences can be paraphrased in more difficult words in the programme: “The piece highlights a devilish aspect of the solo-format and thrusts it into the foreground.
By creating a game of valuation, a structure authored by Malmborg – the performance maker – using Malmborg – the performer – for its purposes, he is put in a situation that oscillates between controlling and being controlled. Ultimately aiming for a state in which Malmborg is reduced from being a subject that is acting, to becoming an object that is appearing and being watched.” I have to admit I had to read this paragraph a couple of times before I could understood it, although what it all meant I only got after seeing the show. Is it really necessary to scare viewers like this beforehand? I guess some people are fine with this kind of deep talk.
The performance is like a collage that could be divided into three intertwining parts:
The introductions led by the first speaker. The speaker announces, which object would like to speak. Iggy takes the small speaker to the object, which then delivers a monologue about its inner life. The table, the button of the fire alarm, the cable, the thing on the wall, the lamp, the shit tube and the floor all get a turn to speak. Every monologue touches on the object’s function and contemplates that if it wouldn’t meet its function it would be categorized as trash. The monologues are humorous, but at the same time reflect rationality.
Tasks given to Iggy by the second speaker. Throughout the show the speaker assigns Iggy tasks with a set time frame – Iggy has to start crying in front of the audience in four minutes; the crying has been fulfilled when Iggy has shed at least two tears. Blushing – fulfilled when his face, neck and ears are redder than before. An erection (hence the name) – fulfilled when the angle of his penis is at least 45 degrees. Iggy fails in all of the assignments the first time. But later, with some help, he succeeds – the erection is fulfilled with a dose of Viagra; his face becomes red when he blows up some balloons and tears start rolling when he rubs some Vietnamese Balm under his eyes. As always, anything is possible in theatre – when the actor can’t manage, he can turn to tricks to deceive the audience. As the assignments are quite long, the third speaker provides entertainment by playing the undying song “Green Onions”.
When people enter the theatre hall to find their seats, there are pink Angry Bird notebooks on the chairs. Whether it means something or not, I’m not sure, but it seems something that should be mentioned. Before starting, Iggy explains that the notebooks are there so that viewers could throw ideas on the stage in the middle of the show. And so the third part of the performance is about dissecting ideas hurled on the stage. He mainly envisions how he would make art on the theme given to him – a film about endless provisions of Viagra, a philosophical performance on the analysis of the Marxist worldview etc. It is clear the young man is very imaginative and talented, pouring out humorous solutions, which explode in his head in a matter of instants.
The way he sums the show up at the end is beautiful. In the middle of the show Iggy explains why the lighting is the way it is – big spotlights behind the viewers’ backs directed at him – it is so he wouldn’t see our faces. The anonymity undoubtedly gives the actor a greater confidence in carrying out the challenging tasks. At the end of the show, however, the spotlights are lit up on both sides, the anonymity disappears, but it doesn’t matter anymore, the revelations have been made, he has given everything he had to the audience.