WORLD PROBLEMS

Emma Mary Hall *1981

World Problems is a theatertext Emma has been writing during her Cultureland residency. She would like to read it to you. World Problems is a list of things: in short, it is a remembering of the future, a description of world history, a dramatisation of a what Emma is calling “social ecology”, and an imagining of how we might save the planet. It is also, with any luck, a journey from the swamp lands of Starnmeer to the bright city lights of Wormerveer. This reading goes for about 45 minutes.

The other half of the theatretext Emma has been writing is called Oswald. In truth, Oswald might be a separate show entirely. Oswald is about the German philosopher Oswald Spengler, who is famous mainly for his 1922 book Der Untergang des Abendlandes (curiously translated in English as Decline of the West): an agonisingly long, frequently impenetrable, largely un-read manifesto on the demise of Western Europe. Emma will have a short book available for you to read about Oswald. Actually it might be safer not to call it a ‘book’, more likely it will be a script. A script for a performance lecture. You can read it before the performance starts. Or you can take it home and read it in your own time. Or you can take it home and never look at it again, as most people do with Oswald Spengler.

Emma Mary Hall (1981) is an actor, theatre maker and writer from Melbourne, Australia.   She makes political, often comedic works. She wonders often about things like the future, political art, and digital democracies. Emma is influenced by many wonderful artists who are interrogating political realities,truth and time including: Tim Etchells, Spalding Gray, David Shrigley, Martin Creed, and Nicola Gunn.

Emma worked further on her piece during a residency at Oostblok, where she also performed the piece twice. See this interview with her in Amsterdam Alternative 13-07-2018