Review: Paradisdoktrinen

Life is an absurd torment

In Teater Mestola’s comedy Paradisdoktrinen, it is God instead of man who suffers from existential anxiety about the world. The performance begins with a sequence set far into the future and another dimension, in which the dreadlock-haired and bearded God (Lidia Bäck) suffers from creative cramps and engages in a hilarious dialogue with the even hairier Charles Darwin (Martin Bahne), who holds on to his scientific paradigms.

It is difficult for God to accept the lost faith of the last cyborg inhabitants of the post-apocalyptic Earth, Adam (Bahne) and Eva (Iida the King), and their inability to even ask for help from their creator. Despite His frustration, God decides to give man another chance.

In the updated version of Creation, Adam and Eva, who are once again flesh and blood, begin their journey together on an online date in Finland in 2017 and form a hipster-class nuclear family with their soon-to-be-born son David (Bäck). This paradise is overshadowed by the knowledge that the Earth is about to be destroyed in a meteor impact in 16 years.

Despite the approaching end of the world, Adam gets stuck in his dream of breaking as a DJ and cries his male crisis to a bartender who looks like Karl Ove Knausgård . David, on the other hand, grows crooked with Milton Friedman haunting the nursery and goes crazy with bodybuilding narcissism in adolescence. At least Eva suffers from the pain of the world, but she banalizes her feelings in her tragicomic video blogs.

It is less surprising that the hope of a person becoming more humble and aware is once again progressing to disaster.

The skilful direction of Fredrik Lundqvist and Joséphine Wistedt, the creative costumes of the performance, the set design consisting mainly of cardboard boxes and the skilful use of silhouettes create a personal world in the play.

Fabian Silén’s text is sharp and entertaining in its satire, but a bit long and cultivates elements that are difficult to reconcile in its abundance.