Five men in a glasshouse, stored as plants in a collection. Five human beings together, locked up in one glass room. A microscope trough in which we can look at the human species.

 

Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested in 1991 and accused of murder. In his apartment the police found decomposing meat and dozens of polaroids Dahmer had taken of his victims while they were tied up and butchered. In his freezer they found heads, neatly packed in plastic bags. The Dahmer syndrome uses the story of Jeffrey Dahmer as a rubric to rethink both the relationship between sexuality and perversion, between observation and voyeurism. The glasshouse functions as a laboratory where new boundaries are created and old disappear.

 

With The Dahmer Syndrome director Øystein Johansen continues his exploration into the perverted logic of Jeffrey Dahmer and other ‘lone wolfs’.  Both performances are a research into obsession and isolation and how both amplify each other.

 

 

“Inspired by the story of the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer I want to make a piece reflecting the demarcation lines between sexuality and perversion, between observation and voyeurism. At what point does the quest for intimacy becomes violent? Can perversity be beautiful and why are we – the spectator – so fascinated by it?“

 

 

 

Partners: Black Box theatre, Workspace Brussels, School van Gaasbeek, Brakke Grond, Amsterdam Fringe festival

Funded by: Norsk Kulturråd, FFUK, Fond for lyd og bilde, Oslo kommune

 

Performers: Marius Mensink, Jurrien Remkes, Igor Vrebac, 

Freek Nieuwdorp, Erwin Dörr,

Playwright: M H Hallum

Photographer: Kristine Halmrast

Dramaturg: Jonas Rutgeerts

Production manager: Thomas Vandewalle

Composer: Hans Kristen Hyrve

Set-design: Breg Horemans

Lightdesigner: Yuri Schreuders