Kambriska Explosionen [The Cambrian Explosion] | Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir, Liv Vesterskov, Annika Nyman

The stage production Kambriska Explosionen [The Cambrian Explosion] is being workshopped at IAC, before meeting its audience at the end of summer in Malmö.

The Cambrian Explosion takes its point of departure in Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. In this version, the story becomes an intense study of belonging, crisis, and the borderland between air and water, centered on a solitary stranger. The journey moves from the silent mythologies of the deep ocean to hyperreal, plastic-embedded coastlines, in a world where the personal and the planetary have become entwined in the wake of ocean acidification and the climate crisis.

On stage, the mermaid is portrayed by Liv Vesterskov in a polyphonic monologue written by Annika Nyman (Malmö Theatre Academy). The scenic and textual approach builds on Nyman’s earlier artistic research into literary friction and the multiple voices of drama. This is supported and amplified by composer Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir’s (Malmö Academy of Music) multichannel sound world. The composition draws, among other things, on recordings of ecological sound art as well as performances with AI-augmented instruments.

Visit Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir's artist page - hallasteinunn.com

Visit Liv Vesterskov's artist page - liv-vesterskov.com

Read more about Annika Nyman at Malmö Theatre Academy (in Swedish)