The stage is a shop window, an Ikea box, a kind of fictional exhibition space for the authentic life we are expected to live. There we meet four friends, but no – we don't. We see four actors pretending to be friends and immediately start arguing about authenticity. When are we authentic and when do we matter? Who do we have the right to portray on stage? Everyone, or only those who are equal to us in the hierarchy of society? Pussy Riot, French Revolution, blackface, are we even allowed to dress up as pears?
Today, when columns in the daily press are devoted to the subject's function in literature, the white cis man's privileges and cultural appropriation, the cornerstones of the theatre are shaken to its core. Theatre is, of course, the idea of performance, that actors make a tacit agreement with the audience to pretend to be someone else, to play that game for a while in the hope of reaching deeper understanding. But how great is the risk that with this theatrical idea we reproduce stereotypes, offend and create even greater contradictions?
These are the questions asked by Danish director Tue Biering. While he is seriously interested in the answers, he cannot help but make comedy of a contemporary discourse in which it is difficult to orient oneself in the concepts. It swings about "The shameless. The language, the acting, the music, the costumes, the choreography – it's all clever, initiated and deliberately tied itself in knots so many times that it's impossible not to get as confused as the actors (pretend to be?) on stage.
The ensemble embarks on a Mission Impossible in Malmö evening to ask passers-by: "Hey can I play you?" and it turns into touching live projected meetings with "real" people. Four civilian actors take the stage, representatives of the people we love to stencilize, and it becomes clear that acting is not just about vocal resources but about actually performing.
What about the bottom line? With humor and cunning, Biering asks important questions about our ability to create interpersonal understanding for real. After watching "The Shameless," I still believe that the performing arts can help us get there.