Kelemen Kristóf: Some Viewers May Find This Distracting

You won’t believe what’s about to unfold on Trafós Main Stage!

Lines like this one are designed to take control of our focus on the internet. We’re bombarded with them from every angle while algorithms geared at our most primal emotions drive us to keep burning through a seemingly infinite stream of content – all to keep us glued to a handful of specific online platforms for as long as possible. Our attention has become the oil of the 21st century, and every single second of it is fought over – not only by cosmetics advertisements and holiday photos but by mass-produced political messages and social campaigns too. Our perception of reality is conditioned by those who can get their message across the most piercing way.

Through the personal stories of experts as performers, Some Viewers May Find This Distracting is a documentary theatre piece that focuses on the hidden mechanisms of the online realm, how we can find a voice in it, and the commodification of attention. All this is done through the medium of theatre, where the audience is granted the rare luxury of focusing on one thing only: events that unfold on an empty stage.

Drawing on Bertold Brecht’s play, ‘Die Maßnahme’ (The Measures Taken), four modern agitators – a journalist, an Instagram blogger, a TikTok influencer and an activist reflect on their fight for a more just society within the online realm that was once about freedom and accessible information and has now become the playground of Big Tech. On what terms can an idea be granted visibility under these circumstances? In what way is global capitalism moulding the discourse of an Eastern European autocracy? Can the hegemons of the internet be tackled, outsmarted – and if so, how?

Staying true to the spirit of Brecht, we attempt to remind the audience of the simple truth that our perception of reality can be altered, especially in the age of the internet.

Kristóf Kelemen is an award-winning director, writer and dramaturg. This performance will be his fifth work premiered at Trafó. He has also directed at Radnóti Theatre and Örkény Theatre in Budapest. The forms and genres he works with are varied. His projects are focused on themes like the politics of memory, global capitalism, and the boundlessness of artistic imagination in some way. His performances have been showcased at numerous international festivals in Germany, Switzerland, Romania, Belgium, and the United States.

Participants:

Kata Benedek

Orsolya Jeney

Szilvi Német

Samu Seres

Music: Natalie Szende

Choreographer: Zsófia Tamara Vadas

English translation: Gabriella Gál

Lights: Bala Szabon

Technical Manager: Tibor Kiefer

Assistant Director: Anita Totobé, Róza Kereszty

Production Manager: Anita Totobé

Dramaturg & Consultant: Tímea Török

Director: Kristóf Kelemen