Master of the universe - a vulnerable story without a moral precedent

Illustrations

The play starts with depictions of suicide attempts. The scenes are performed with a humorous touch, which at first is considered amusing, but as the scene unfolds, the mood among the audience drops, and in the opening scene the applause becomes more hesitant for each "suicide attempt", as the audience understands that this is not actually funny.In Master of The Universe, Beatur meets someone who, it turns out, has experienced a lot throughout his life. As I said, the piece starts with a series of mimed suicides, combined with fun music, and out of context it could seem random and grotesque, but turned out to be interpreted with a much deeper meaning.

Humorous seriousness

In the main part, the theme shifts to his childhood and the moments that led up to him becoming addicted to drugs, including neglect and abusive parents. During the first half of the story, along with various music and lighting elements, we hear how different drugs affect his life, he loses friends, work and money.

The humor is maintained throughout this part of the play, which provides a lot of laughter and life among the audience. Quite suddenly, but in a way that is not necessarily noticeable, the atmosphere in the auditorium became serious and earnest. The humorous way of portraying addiction led to the audience understanding that he is about to destroy his own life.

In the opening scene of the pre-show, all of us in the editorial team had different perspectives and interpretations of the meaning behind the grotesque start, which we found interesting. After the play was finished, I had to think back to the beginning, and then understood what I interpret it as. I think the beginning can have several meanings. In a way, I think it was meant to prepare us for the rest of the play by, among other things, presenting repetition that we could recognize later in the play through the repeated relapses to drugs and alcohol.

Vulnerable history without a moral precedent.  

In my opinion, this unique start can be interpreted in many different ways, but what shines through the most is to prove the end point is male. He says that many people struggle with addiction and that we as a society find it easy not to understand the seriousness of abuse.

It's a real problem that needs to be taken seriously. He shows this in a formidable way with the help of a transition that runs through the entire text, namely by starting with a joke about one of the most serious issues, i.e. suicide, and ending up by telling us a vulnerable story without it becoming a moral lecture.

WARNING: The video game contains many scenes with bright flashing lights that may cause discomfort to some viewers.

Written by: Tonje Roos (16 years old)