Lund City

The Cassandra Syndrome & Who Killed My Father?

2 plays 1 performance

A mother, a father, a daughter, a son. Two look back on their relationship in ancient Greece, the other two sit in a village in France and wonder where the time went. Worries about the future, thoughts about the past. Secrets and betrayal and unconditional love, everything that characterizes the relationship between a parent and a child. Wherever you are, wherever you are. You never escape the gaze of the one who gave you life.

CASSANDRA SYNDROME
Troy. The enemy sits outside the city walls for ten years and threatens war. Then they suddenly gather their pick and pack and go home. They leave a mess of horseshoes behind. A huge thing, made of wood and metal. “Don't touch it!” shouts Kassandra to the Trojans who want it into the city immediately. When no one listens, she becomes hysterical. She claims she can see into the future. She's probably just crazy.

We meet Hecuba, queen of Troy, with responsibility over people and society. We meet her daughter, Kassandra, the little girl, the teenager, condemned by capricious gods to be forced to see the brutality of the future - and condemned to never be listened to. They meet in a desperate struggle before the city gates are opened and the fatal horse is dragged in, in will to face each other and in inability.

WHO KILLED MY DAD?
A son visits his father after he hurts himself at the factory he works at. It evokes a lot of memories that the son has with his father during his upbringing, an upbringing bordered by violence, harsh words and homophobia but also poverty, double jobs and a constant struggle to make ends meet. You can look at your parent and wonder why they didn't make more of an effort to make a relationship work, but you can also see it from another angle.

Édouard Louis's book is an indictment of the French politicians, they are all guilty of killing his father. To make a father-son relationship impossible. To have a tolerable life. To the tune of Barbie Girl, we draw a tender and violent story about how, most of all, we accept that our society constantly turns its back on those who need the most help.

The performance is played as two acts but without an intermission.
From 13 years and up.

The Cassandra Syndrome
By Annika Nyman
Directed by Elin Skärstrand

Starring Meera Ryan & Lillemor Hjelm

Who killed my father?
After the book Who Killed My Father by Édouard Louis
Dramatization & direction Kristian Hallberg

Starring Mats Granath & Wasim Kashlan

Scenography & costumes Evelina Johansson
Lighting design & technology Ida Eklund
Technology, video & manufacturing Christian Jönsson
Sound Christian Jönsson, Kristian Hallberg
Mask Charlotte Wolke
Film material Kristian Hallberg
Sewing Tuva Eserstam
Opera Amanda Flodin
Intern Tanim Hossain
Producer Anneli Sandell
Communication Henrik Hulander
Graphic form Colossal

PRESS VOICES
The two performances have different tempos and forms. “The Cassandra Syndrome” is a fast, dense and concentrated story that unfolds in real time and where contemporary references in both language and gadgets are cleverly woven in. In “Who Killed My Father?” the tempo is slower and the tone more subdued but also restrained and the story moves back and forth in time. The actors also step out of their roles to help the audience orient themselves in French politics, to understand the accusation the son makes against the ruling party for ruining his father’s life.

Both performances are superbly well-acted. Lillemor Hjelm as the queen and Meera Ryan as Kassandra switch between emotional states at lightning speed without losing their strong connection for a second. Mats Granath as the father and Sakib Zabbar as the son move more tentatively around each other, which provides fine space for convincing character portrayal.

It's a daring experiment to play two different plays one after the other, without a break. But it works. The plays talk to each other and they talk to the audience.

For the audience, there is a lot to grasp. The associations the plays evoke and the parallels you draw are certainly related to the historical and socio-political background knowledge you have. At the same time, it is easy to sink into each play with the experience that most people in the audience bring with them – that of being a teenager or a parent.
Gunilla Wedding, Southern Sweden

Lillemor Hjelm and Meera Ryan find their roles and their relationship with great feeling: the mother who is worried about her daughter, and the daughter who is worried about the future but in the end just has to bow to fate. Kassandra speaks contemporary language and it is fun when, for example, she compliments the mother on her "king skills".
Malin Krutmeijer, Southern Sweden

The plays raise thoughts about society and life, but it is above all when I see it all through the eyes of my fellow audience that I realize how important Månteattern, and all other theater for children and young people, is; it is vital that children get to see adults scream and cry and laugh. And play! That they get to learn that there is room for emotions, room to grieve, room to be in despair. That things can change, that nothing is static. That it is okay to be angry, at mom, at dad, at Emmanuel Macron and the whole damn world.
Alice Nyberg, Lundagård

Dates, Times, Location

Saturday 8 February 2025, at 19:00

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